Intrapericardial neuroendocrine tumour in a dog

An 11-year-old neutered male Border Terrier presented for pericardiectomy after a nine-month history of tricavitary effusion, dyspnoea and lethargy. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a fluid-filled structure at the heart base, starting at the mid-right ventricle and extending to the middle of the right atrium. Almost complete compression of the right atrium and the cranial vena cava was noted. Thoracic computed tomography revealed a heterogeneously enhancing and poorly marginated mass within the cranial aspect of the pericardium. A median sternotomy and subtotal pericardiectomy were performed. A non-distinct fluid-filled structure within the pericardium adhered to the epicardium was visualised. The structure was removed via marsupialisation along with extirpation of enlarged sternal lymph nodes. Histopathological examination of the sternal lymph nodes revealed expansile, well-demarcated, unencapsulated nodules of neoplastic cells consistent with a neuroendocrine tumour suspected to be thyroid in origin. After surgery, intractable pleural effusion resulted in euthanasia. Intrapericardial ectopic thyroid tumours are rarely reported in animals. The location of the mass and unusual presentation may have made it challenging for echocardiography to identify this neoplasia. Thoracic computed tomography at an earlier stage may have identified the neoplasia and potentially allowed for surgical intervention.

Emergency Laparotomy Follow-Up Study (ELFUS): prospective feasibility investigation into postoperative complications and quality of life using patient-reported outcome measures up to a year after emergency laparotomy

BACKGROUND

Emergency laparotomy carries a significant risk profile around the time of surgery. This research aimed to establish the feasibility of recruitment to a study using validated scoring tools to assess complications after surgery; and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to assess quality of life and quality of recovery up to a year following emergency laparotomy (EL).

METHODS

We used our local National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) register to identify potential participants at a single NHS centre in England. Complications were assessed at 5, 10 and 30 days after EL. Patient-reported outcome measures were collected at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery using EQ5D and WHODAS 2.0 questionnaires.

RESULTS

Seventy of 129 consecutive patients (54%) agreed to take part in the study. Post-operative morbidity survey data was recorded from 63 and 37 patients at postoperative day 5 and day 10. Accordion Complication Severity Grading data was obtained from 70 patients. Patient-reported outcome measures were obtained from patients at baseline and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery from 70, 59, 51, 48, to 42 patients (100%, 87%, 77%, 75% and 69% of survivors), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This study affirms the feasibility of collecting PROMs and morbidity data successfully at various time points following emergency laparotomy, and is the first longitudinal study to describe quality of life up to a year after surgery. This finding is important in the design of a larger observational study into quality of life and recovery after EL.

Cryogenic loading of argon pressure medium in diamond anvil high pressure cells with in situ pressure determination

A versatile system for cryogenic loading of argon pressure medium into the sample space of a diamond anvil cell has been developed. The system has been designed such that, with suitable adaptors, a wide range of diamond anvil cell designs can be pressurized. The pressure in the cell can be monitored during pressurization using the ruby fluorescence method via optical fiber access into the loading chamber. This enables the precise and accurate setting of the loading pressure in the cell.

Human genome meeting 2016 : Houston, TX, USA. 28 February - 2 March 2016

O1 The metabolomics approach to autism: identification of biomarkers for early detection of autism spectrum disorder A. K. Srivastava, Y. Wang, R. Huang, C. Skinner, T. Thompson, L. Pollard, T. Wood, F. Luo, R. Stevenson O2 Phenome-wide association study for smoking- and drinking-associated genes in 26,394 American women with African, Asian, European, and Hispanic descents R. Polimanti, J. Gelernter O3 Effects of prenatal environment, genotype and DNA methylation on birth weight and subsequent postnatal outcomes: findings from GUSTO, an Asian birth cohort X. Lin, I. Y. Lim, Y. Wu, A. L. Teh, L. Chen, I. M. Aris, S. E. Soh, M. T. Tint, J. L. MacIsaac, F. Yap, K. Kwek, S. M. Saw, M. S. Kobor, M. J. Meaney, K. M. Godfrey, Y. S. Chong, J. D. Holbrook, Y. S. Lee, P. D. Gluckman, N. Karnani, GUSTO study group O4 High-throughput identification of specific qt interval modulating enhancers at the SCN5A locus A. Kapoor, D. Lee, A. Chakravarti O5 Identification of extracellular matrix components inducing cancer cell migration in the supernatant of cultivated mesenchymal stem cells C. Maercker, F. Graf, M. Boutros O6 Single cell allele specific expression (ASE) IN T21 and common trisomies: a novel approach to understand DOWN syndrome and other aneuploidies G. Stamoulis, F. Santoni, P. Makrythanasis, A. Letourneau, M. Guipponi, N. Panousis, M. Garieri, P. Ribaux, E. Falconnet, C. Borel, S. E. Antonarakis O7 Role of microRNA in LCL to IPSC reprogramming S. Kumar, J. Curran, J. Blangero O8 Multiple enhancer variants disrupt gene regulatory network in Hirschsprung disease S. Chatterjee, A. Kapoor, J. Akiyama, D. Auer, C. Berrios, L. Pennacchio, A. Chakravarti O9 Metabolomic profiling for the diagnosis of neurometabolic disorders T. R. Donti, G. Cappuccio, M. Miller, P. Atwal, A. Kennedy, A. Cardon, C. Bacino, L. Emrick, J. Hertecant, F. Baumer, B. Porter, M. Bainbridge, P. Bonnen, B. Graham, R. Sutton, Q. Sun, S. Elsea O10 A novel causal methylation network approach to Alzheimer’s disease Z. Hu, P. Wang, Y. Zhu, J. Zhao, M. Xiong, David A Bennett O11 A microRNA signature identifies subtypes of triple-negative breast cancer and reveals MIR-342-3P as regulator of a lactate metabolic pathway A. Hidalgo-Miranda, S. Romero-Cordoba, S. Rodriguez-Cuevas, R. Rebollar-Vega, E. Tagliabue, M. Iorio, E. D’Ippolito, S. Baroni O12 Transcriptome analysis identifies genes, enhancer RNAs and repetitive elements that are recurrently deregulated across multiple cancer types B. Kaczkowski, Y. Tanaka, H. Kawaji, A. Sandelin, R. Andersson, M. Itoh, T. Lassmann, the FANTOM5 consortium, Y. Hayashizaki, P. Carninci, A. R. R. Forrest O13 Elevated mutation and widespread loss of constraint at regulatory and architectural binding sites across 11 tumour types C. A. Semple O14 Exome sequencing provides evidence of pathogenicity for genes implicated in colorectal cancer E. A. Rosenthal, B. Shirts, L. Amendola, C. Gallego, M. Horike-Pyne, A. Burt, P. Robertson, P. Beyers, C. Nefcy, D. Veenstra, F. Hisama, R. Bennett, M. Dorschner, D. Nickerson, J. Smith, K. Patterson, D. Crosslin, R. Nassir, N. Zubair, T. Harrison, U. Peters, G. Jarvik, NHLBI GO Exome Sequencing Project O15 The tandem duplicator phenotype as a distinct genomic configuration in cancer F. Menghi, K. Inaki, X. Woo, P. Kumar, K. Grzeda, A. Malhotra, H. Kim, D. Ucar, P. Shreckengast, K. Karuturi, J. Keck, J. Chuang, E. T. Liu O16 Modeling genetic interactions associated with molecular subtypes of breast cancer B. Ji, A. Tyler, G. Ananda, G. Carter O17 Recurrent somatic mutation in the MYC associated factor X in brain tumors H. Nikbakht, M. Montagne, M. Zeinieh, A. Harutyunyan, M. Mcconechy, N. Jabado, P. Lavigne, J. Majewski O18 Predictive biomarkers to metastatic pancreatic cancer treatment J. B. Goldstein, M. Overman, G. Varadhachary, R. Shroff, R. Wolff, M. Javle, A. Futreal, D. Fogelman O19 DDIT4 gene expression as a prognostic marker in several malignant tumors L. Bravo, W. Fajardo, H. Gomez, C. Castaneda, C. Rolfo, J. A. Pinto O20 Spatial organization of the genome and genomic alterations in human cancers K. C. Akdemir, L. Chin, A. Futreal, ICGC PCAWG Structural Alterations Group O21 Landscape of targeted therapies in solid tumors S. Patterson, C. Statz, S. Mockus O22 Genomic analysis reveals novel drivers and progression pathways in skin basal cell carcinoma S. N. Nikolaev, X. I. Bonilla, L. Parmentier, B. King, F. Bezrukov, G. Kaya, V. Zoete, V. Seplyarskiy, H. Sharpe, T. McKee, A. Letourneau, P. Ribaux, K. Popadin, N. Basset-Seguin, R. Ben Chaabene, F. Santoni, M. Andrianova, M. Guipponi, M. Garieri, C. Verdan, K. Grosdemange, O. Sumara, M. Eilers, I. Aifantis, O. Michielin, F. de Sauvage, S. Antonarakis O23 Identification of differential biomarkers of hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma via transcriptome microarray meta-analysis S. Likhitrattanapisal O24 Clinical validity and actionability of multigene tests for hereditary cancers in a large multi-center study S. Lincoln, A. Kurian, A. Desmond, S. Yang, Y. Kobayashi, J. Ford, L. Ellisen O25 Correlation with tumor ploidy status is essential for correct determination of genome-wide copy number changes by SNP array T. L. Peters, K. R. Alvarez, E. F. Hollingsworth, D. H. Lopez-Terrada O26 Nanochannel based next-generation mapping for interrogation of clinically relevant structural variation A. Hastie, Z. Dzakula, A. W. Pang, E. T. Lam, T. Anantharaman, M. Saghbini, H. Cao, BioNano Genomics O27 Mutation spectrum in a pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) cohort and identification of associated truncating mutations in TBX4 C. Gonzaga-Jauregui, L. Ma, A. King, E. Berman Rosenzweig, U. Krishnan, J. G. Reid, J. D. Overton, F. Dewey, W. K. Chung O28 NORTH CAROLINA macular dystrophy (MCDR1): mutations found affecting PRDM13 K. Small, A. DeLuca, F. Cremers, R. A. Lewis, V. Puech, B. Bakall, R. Silva-Garcia, K. Rohrschneider, M. Leys, F. S. Shaya, E. Stone O29 PhenoDB and genematcher, solving unsolved whole exome sequencing data N. L. Sobreira, F. Schiettecatte, H. Ling, E. Pugh, D. Witmer, K. Hetrick, P. Zhang, K. Doheny, D. Valle, A. Hamosh O30 Baylor-Johns Hopkins Center for Mendelian genomics: a four year review S. N. Jhangiani, Z. Coban Akdemir, M. N. Bainbridge, W. Charng, W. Wiszniewski, T. Gambin, E. Karaca, Y. Bayram, M. K. Eldomery, J. Posey, H. Doddapaneni, J. Hu, V. R. Sutton, D. M. Muzny, E. A. Boerwinkle, D. Valle, J. R. Lupski, R. A. Gibbs O31 Using read overlap assembly to accurately identify structural genetic differences in an ashkenazi jewish trio S. Shekar, W. Salerno, A. English, A. Mangubat, J. Bruestle O32 Legal interoperability: a sine qua non for international data sharing A. Thorogood, B. M. Knoppers, Global Alliance for Genomics and Health - Regulatory and Ethics Working Group O33 High throughput screening platform of competent sineups: that can enhance translation activities of therapeutic target H. Takahashi, K. R. Nitta, A. Kozhuharova, A. M. Suzuki, H. Sharma, D. Cotella, C. Santoro, S. Zucchelli, S. Gustincich, P. Carninci O34 The undiagnosed diseases network international (UDNI): clinical and laboratory research to meet patient needs J. J. Mulvihill, G. Baynam, W. Gahl, S. C. Groft, K. Kosaki, P. Lasko, B. Melegh, D. Taruscio O36 Performance of computational algorithms in pathogenicity predictions for activating variants in oncogenes versus loss of function mutations in tumor suppressor genes R. Ghosh, S. Plon O37 Identification and electronic health record incorporation of clinically actionable pharmacogenomic variants using prospective targeted sequencing S. Scherer, X. Qin, R. Sanghvi, K. Walker, T. Chiang, D. Muzny, L. Wang, J. Black, E. Boerwinkle, R. Weinshilboum, R. Gibbs O38 Melanoma reprogramming state correlates with response to CTLA-4 blockade in metastatic melanoma T. Karpinets, T. Calderone, K. Wani, X. Yu, C. Creasy, C. Haymaker, M. Forget, V. Nanda, J. Roszik, J. Wargo, L. Haydu, X. Song, A. Lazar, J. Gershenwald, M. Davies, C. Bernatchez, J. Zhang, A. Futreal, S. Woodman O39 Data-driven refinement of complex disease classification from integration of heterogeneous functional genomics data in GeneWeaver E. J. Chesler, T. Reynolds, J. A. Bubier, C. Phillips, M. A. Langston, E. J. Baker O40 A general statistic framework for genome-based disease risk prediction M. Xiong, L. Ma, N. Lin, C. Amos O41 Integrative large-scale causal network analysis of imaging and genomic data and its application in schizophrenia studies N. Lin, P. Wang, Y. Zhu, J. Zhao, V. Calhoun, M. Xiong O42 Big data and NGS data analysis: the cloud to the rescue O. Dobretsberger, M. Egger, F. Leimgruber O43 Cpipe: a convergent clinical exome pipeline specialised for targeted sequencing S. Sadedin, A. Oshlack, Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance O44 A Bayesian classification of biomedical images using feature extraction from deep neural networks implemented on lung cancer data V. A. A. Antonio, N. Ono, Clark Kendrick C. Go O45 MAV-SEQ: an interactive platform for the Management, Analysis, and Visualization of sequence data Z. Ahmed, M. Bolisetty, S. Zeeshan, E. Anguiano, D. Ucar O47 Allele specific enhancer in EPAS1 intronic regions may contribute to high altitude adaptation of Tibetans C. Zeng, J. Shao O48 Nanochannel based next-generation mapping for structural variation detection and comparison in trios and populations H. Cao, A. Hastie, A. W. Pang, E. T. Lam, T. Liang, K. Pham, M. Saghbini, Z. Dzakula O49 Archaic introgression in indigenous populations of Malaysia revealed by whole genome sequencing Y. Chee-Wei, L. Dongsheng, W. Lai-Ping, D. Lian, R. O. Twee Hee, Y. Yunus, F. Aghakhanian, S. S. Mokhtar, C. V. Lok-Yung, J. Bhak, M. Phipps, X. Shuhua, T. Yik-Ying, V. Kumar, H. Boon-Peng O50 Breast and ovarian cancer prevention: is it time for population-based mutation screening of high risk genes? I. Campbell, M.-A. Young, P. James, Lifepool O53 Comprehensive coverage from low DNA input using novel NGS library preparation methods for WGS and WGBS C. Schumacher, S. Sandhu, T. Harkins, V. Makarov O54 Methods for large scale construction of robust PCR-free libraries for sequencing on Illumina HiSeqX platform H. DoddapaneniR. Glenn, Z. Momin, B. Dilrukshi, H. Chao, Q. Meng, B. Gudenkauf, R. Kshitij, J. Jayaseelan, C. Nessner, S. Lee, K. Blankenberg, L. Lewis, J. Hu, Y. Han, H. Dinh, S. Jireh, K. Walker, E. Boerwinkle, D. Muzny, R. Gibbs O55 Rapid capture methods for clinical sequencing J. Hu, K. Walker, C. Buhay, X. Liu, Q. Wang, R. Sanghvi, H. Doddapaneni, Y. Ding, N. Veeraraghavan, Y. Yang, E. Boerwinkle, A. L. Beaudet, C. M. Eng, D. M. Muzny, R. A. Gibbs O56 A diploid personal human genome model for better genomes from diverse sequence data K. C. C. Worley, Y. Liu, D. S. T. Hughes, S. C. Murali, R. A. Harris, A. C. English, X. Qin, O. A. Hampton, P. Larsen, C. Beck, Y. Han, M. Wang, H. Doddapaneni, C. L. Kovar, W. J. Salerno, A. Yoder, S. Richards, J. Rogers, J. R. Lupski, D. M. Muzny, R. A. Gibbs O57 Development of PacBio long range capture for detection of pathogenic structural variants Q. Meng, M. Bainbridge, M. Wang, H. Doddapaneni, Y. Han, D. Muzny, R. Gibbs O58 Rhesus macaques exhibit more non-synonymous variation but greater impact of purifying selection than humans R. A. Harris, M. Raveenedran, C. Xue, M. Dahdouli, L. Cox, G. Fan, B. Ferguson, J. Hovarth, Z. Johnson, S. Kanthaswamy, M. Kubisch, M. Platt, D. Smith, E. Vallender, R. Wiseman, X. Liu, J. Below, D. Muzny, R. Gibbs, F. Yu, J. Rogers O59 Assessing RNA structure disruption induced by single-nucleotide variation J. Lin, Y. Zhang, Z. Ouyang P1 A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of mitochondrial dna copy number A. Moore, Z. Wang, J. Hofmann, M. Purdue, R. Stolzenberg-Solomon, S. Weinstein, D. Albanes, C.-S. Liu, W.-L. Cheng, T.-T. Lin, Q. Lan, N. Rothman, S. Berndt P2 Missense polymorphic genetic combinations underlying down syndrome susceptibility E. S. Chen P4 The evaluation of alteration of ELAM-1 expression in the endometriosis patients H. Bahrami, A. Khoshzaban, S. Heidari Keshal P5 Obesity and the incidence of apolipoprotein E polymorphisms in an assorted population from Saudi Arabia population K. K. R. Alharbi P6 Genome-associated personalized antithrombotical therapy for patients with high risk of thrombosis and bleeding M. Zhalbinova, A. Akilzhanova, S. Rakhimova, M. Bekbosynova, S. Myrzakhmetova P7 Frequency of Xmn1 polymorphism among sickle cell carrier cases in UAE population M. Matar P8 Differentiating inflammatory bowel diseases by using genomic data: dimension of the problem and network organization N. Mili, R. Molinari, Y. Ma, S. Guerrier P9 Vulnerability of genetic variants to the risk of autism among Saudi children N. Elhawary, M. Tayeb, N. Bogari, N. Qotb P10 Chromatin profiles from ex vivo purified dopaminergic neurons establish a promising model to support studies of neurological function and dysfunction S. A. McClymont, P. W. Hook, L. A. Goff, A. McCallion P11 Utilization of a sensitized chemical mutagenesis screen to identify genetic modifiers of retinal dysplasia in homozygous Nr2e3^rd7 mice Y. Kong, J. R. Charette, W. L. Hicks, J. K. Naggert, L. Zhao, P. M. Nishina P12 Ion torrent next generation sequencing of recessive polycystic kidney disease in Saudi patients B. M. Edrees, M. Athar, F. A. Al-Allaf, M. M. Taher, W. Khan, A. Bouazzaoui, N. A. Harbi, R. Safar, H. Al-Edressi, A. Anazi, N. Altayeb, M. A. Ahmed, K. Alansary, Z. Abduljaleel P13 Digital expression profiling of Purkinje neurons and dendrites in different subcellular compartments A. Kratz, P. Beguin, S. Poulain, M. Kaneko, C. Takahiko, A. Matsunaga, S. Kato, A. M. Suzuki, N. Bertin, T. Lassmann, R. Vigot, P. Carninci, C. Plessy, T. Launey P14 The evolution of imperfection and imperfection of evolution: the functional and functionless fractions of the human genome D. Graur P16 Species-independent identification of known and novel recurrent genomic entities in multiple cancer patients J. Friis-Nielsen, J. M. Izarzugaza, S. Brunak P18 Discovery of active gene modules which are densely conserved across multiple cancer types reveal their prognostic power and mutually exclusive mutation patterns B. S. Soibam P19 Whole exome sequencing of dysplastic leukoplakia tissue indicates sequential accumulation of somatic mutations from oral precancer to cancer D. Das, N. Biswas, S. Das, S. Sarkar, A. Maitra, C. Panda, P. Majumder P21 Epigenetic mechanisms of carcinogensis by hereditary breast cancer genes J. J. Gruber, N. Jaeger, M. Snyder P22 RNA direct: a novel RNA enrichment strategy applied to transcripts associated with solid tumors K. Patel, S. Bowman, T. Davis, D. Kraushaar, A. Emerman, S. Russello, N. Henig, C. Hendrickson P23 RNA sequencing identifies gene mutations for neuroblastoma K. Zhang P24 Participation of SFRP1 in the modulation of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion gene in prostate cancer cell lines M. Rodriguez-Dorantes, C. D. Cruz-Hernandez, C. D. P. Garcia-Tobilla, S. Solorzano-Rosales P25 Targeted Methylation Sequencing of Prostate Cancer N. Jäger, J. Chen, R. Haile, M. Hitchins, J. D. Brooks, M. Snyder P26 Mutant TPMT alleles in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia from México City and Yucatán, Mexico S. Jiménez-Morales, M. Ramírez, J. Nuñez, V. Bekker, Y. Leal, E. Jiménez, A. Medina, A. Hidalgo, J. Mejía P28 Genetic modifiers of Alström syndrome J. Naggert, G. B. Collin, K. DeMauro, R. Hanusek, P. M. Nishina P31 Association of genomic variants with the occurrence of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor (ACEI)-induced coughing among Filipinos E. M. Cutiongco De La Paz, R. Sy, J. Nevado, P. Reganit, L. Santos, J. D. Magno, F. E. Punzalan , D. Ona , E. Llanes, R. L. Santos-Cortes , R. Tiongco, J. Aherrera, L. Abrahan, P. Pagauitan-Alan; Philippine Cardiogenomics Study Group P32 The use of “humanized” mouse models to validate disease association of a de novo GARS variant and to test a novel gene therapy strategy for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2D K. H. Morelli, J. S. Domire, N. Pyne, S. Harper, R. Burgess P34 Molecular regulation of chondrogenic human induced pluripotent stem cells M. A. Gari, A. Dallol, H. Alsehli, A. Gari, M. Gari, A. Abuzenadah P35 Molecular profiling of hematologic malignancies: implementation of a variant assessment algorithm for next generation sequencing data analysis and clinical reporting M. Thomas, M. Sukhai, S. Garg, M. Misyura, T. Zhang, A. Schuh, T. Stockley, S. Kamel-Reid P36 Accessing genomic evidence for clinical variants at NCBI S. Sherry, C. Xiao, D. Slotta, K. Rodarmer, M. Feolo, M. Kimelman, G. Godynskiy, C. O’Sullivan, E. Yaschenko P37 NGS-SWIFT: a cloud-based variant analysis framework using control-accessed sequencing data from DBGAP/SRA C. Xiao, E. Yaschenko, S. Sherry P38 Computational assessment of drug induced hepatotoxicity through gene expression profiling C. Rangel-Escareño, H. Rueda-Zarate P40 Flowr: robust and efficient pipelines using a simple language-agnostic approach;ultraseq; fast modular pipeline for somatic variation calling using flowr S. Seth, S. Amin, X. Song, X. Mao, H. Sun, R. G. Verhaak, A. Futreal, J. Zhang P41 Applying “Big data” technologies to the rapid analysis of heterogenous large cohort data S. J. Whiite, T. Chiang, A. English, J. Farek, Z. Kahn, W. Salerno, N. Veeraraghavan, E. Boerwinkle, R. Gibbs P42 FANTOM5 web resource for the large-scale genome-wide transcription start site activity profiles of wide-range of mammalian cells T. Kasukawa, M. Lizio, J. Harshbarger, S. Hisashi, J. Severin, A. Imad, S. Sahin, T. C. Freeman, K. Baillie, A. Sandelin, P. Carninci, A. R. R. Forrest, H. Kawaji, The FANTOM Consortium P43 Rapid and scalable typing of structural variants for disease cohorts W. Salerno, A. English, S. N. Shekar, A. Mangubat, J. Bruestle, E. Boerwinkle, R. A. Gibbs P44 Polymorphism of glutathione S-transferases and sulphotransferases genes in an Arab population A. H. Salem, M. Ali, A. Ibrahim, M. Ibrahim P46 Genetic divergence of CYP3A5*3 pharmacogenomic marker for native and admixed Mexican populations J. C. Fernandez-Lopez, V. Bonifaz-Peña, C. Rangel-Escareño, A. Hidalgo-Miranda, A. V. Contreras P47 Whole exome sequence meta-analysis of 13 white blood cell, red blood cell, and platelet traits L. Polfus, CHARGE and NHLBI Exome Sequence Project Working Groups P48 Association of adipoq gene with type 2 diabetes and related phenotypes in african american men and women: The jackson heart study S. Davis, R. Xu, S. Gebeab, P Riestra, A Gaye, R. Khan, J. Wilson, A. Bidulescu P49 Common variants in casr gene are associated with serum calcium levels in koreans S. H. Jung, N. Vinayagamoorthy, S. H. Yim, Y. J. Chung P50 Inference of multiple-wave population admixture by modeling decay of linkage disequilibrium with multiple exponential functions Y. Zhou, S. Xu P51 A Bayesian framework for generalized linear mixed models in genome-wide association studies X. Wang, V. Philip, G. Carter P52 Targeted sequencing approach for the identification of the genetic causes of hereditary hearing impairment A. A. Abuzenadah, M. Gari, R. Turki, A. Dallol P53 Identification of enhancer sequences by ATAC-seq open chromatin profiling A. Uyar, A. Kaygun, S. Zaman, E. Marquez, J. George, D. Ucar P54 Direct enrichment for the rapid preparation of targeted NGS libraries C. L. Hendrickson, A. Emerman, D. Kraushaar, S. Bowman, N. Henig, T. Davis, S. Russello, K. Patel P56 Performance of the Agilent D5000 and High Sensitivity D5000 ScreenTape assays for the Agilent 4200 Tapestation System R. Nitsche, L. Prieto-Lafuente P57 ClinVar: a multi-source archive for variant interpretation M. Landrum, J. Lee, W. Rubinstein, D. Maglott P59 Association of functional variants and protein physical interactions of human MUTY homolog linked with familial adenomatous polyposis and colorectal cancer syndrome Z. Abduljaleel, W. Khan, F. A. Al-Allaf, M. Athar , M. M. Taher, N. Shahzad P60 Modification of the microbiom constitution in the gut using chicken IgY antibodies resulted in a reduction of acute graft-versus-host disease after experimental bone marrow transplantation A. Bouazzaoui, E. Huber, A. Dan, F. A. Al-Allaf, W. Herr, G. Sprotte, J. Köstler, A. Hiergeist, A. Gessner, R. Andreesen, E. Holler P61 Compound heterozygous mutation in the LDLR gene in Saudi patients suffering severe hypercholesterolemia F. Al-Allaf, A. Alashwal, Z. Abduljaleel, M. Taher, A. Bouazzaoui, H. Abalkhail, A. Al-Allaf, R. Bamardadh, M. Athar

Note: Moissanite backing plates for use in diamond anvil high pressure cells

The use of moissanite (single crystal SiC) for backing plates within diamond anvil cells (DACs) has been developed. These have significant technical advantages in certain experiments. For example, moissanite is non-magnetic so is suitable for use in high magnetic fields and for magnetization experiments. Being translucent to light, including x-rays, means that openings are not required in the backing plate and as such has significant mechanical advantages and can provide enhanced scattering angles for x-ray diffraction experiments. The new backing plates have been successfully tested to over 25 GPa using diamond anvils with 0.5 mm culets.

Genetic variation in the HLA region is associated with susceptibility to herpes zoster

Herpes zoster, commonly referred to as shingles, is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV). VZV initially manifests as chicken pox, most commonly in childhood, can remain asymptomatically latent in nerve tissues for many years and often re-emerges as shingles. Although reactivation may be related to immune suppression, aging and female sex, most inter-individual variability in re-emergence risk has not been explained to date. We performed a genome-wide association analyses in 22 981 participants (2280 shingles cases) from the electronic Medical Records and Genomics Network. Using Cox survival and logistic regression, we identified a genomic region in the combined and European ancestry groups that has an age of onset effect reaching genome-wide significance (P>1.0 × 10⁻⁸). This region tags the non-coding gene HCP5 (HLA Complex P5) in the major histocompatibility complex. This gene is an endogenous retrovirus and likely influences viral activity through regulatory functions. Variants in this genetic region are known to be associated with delay in development of AIDS in people infected by HIV. Our study provides further suggestion that this region may have a critical role in viral suppression and could potentially harbor a clinically actionable variant for the shingles vaccine.

Note: Compact optical fiber coupler for diamond anvil high pressure cells

A compact optical fiber coupler has been developed to allow transmission of light through an optical fiber to and from the high pressure region of a diamond anvil high pressure cell. Despite its small size the coupler has focusing adjustments and optics, which allows the light to be focused precisely on the sample within the pressure cell. The coupler is suitable for a wide range of optical measurements and particularly for high pressure measurements at low temperatures in cryostats with no optical windows. The use of the coupler to determine the pressure in a diamond anvil cell at 1.2 K using the ruby fluorescence spectra of ruby is demonstrated. The small size of the coupler and its construction out of nonmagnetic beryllium copper makes it suitable for use in high magnetic fields and for magnetization experiments.

Display of polarization information by coherently moving dots

It is known that human eyes are effectively polarization-blind. Therefore, in order to display the polarization information in an image, one may require exhibiting such information using other visual cues that are compatible with the human visual system and can be easily detectable by a human observer. Here, we present a technique for displaying polarization information in an image using coherently moving dots that are superimposed on the image. Our examples show that this technique would allow the image segments with polarization signals to "pop out" easily, which will lead to better target feature detection and visibility enhancement.

Evolution of Fermi-liquid interactions in Sr2RuO4 under pressure

We have measured the temperature and field dependence of the resistivity of the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4 at pressures up to 3.3 GPa. Using the Shubnikov-de Haas effect, we find that the Fermi surface sheet believed to be primarily responsible for superconductivity becomes more two-dimensional with increasing pressure, a surprising result that is, however, consistent with a recent model of orbital-dependent superconductivity in this system. Many-body enhancements and the superconducting transition temperature all fall gradually with increasing pressure, contrary to previous suggestions of a ferromagnetic quantum critical point at approximately 3 GPa.

Use of the critical incident technique in primary care in the audit of deaths by suicide

OBJECTIVE

To explore the usefulness of the critical incident technique in primary care to improve policy and practice to prevent cases of suicide.

DESIGN

Inviting all primary care teams in County Durham with a patient who committed suicide between 1 June 1993 and 31 May 1994 to take part in a critical incident audit with an external facilitator.

RESULTS

49 cases of suicide were available for study, registered with 31 practices. 19 (61%) practices accounting for 27 (55%) cases agreed to take part. Case discussions showed areas where practice could be improved, but no substantive preventive measures were identified within primary care, which would reduce the number of people committing suicide. The wider social and economic context was thought to be more important.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of the critical incident technique in primary care may have only a limited role in improving the management of people at risk from suicide. However, one of the potential strengths of this approach is to encourage reflection on practice in a difficult emotional area.

Phospholipase C beta 4 is involved in modulating the visual response in mice

Expression of G protein-regulated phospholipase C (PLC) beta 4 in the retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, and superior colliculus implies that PLC beta 4 may play a role in the mammalian visual process. A mouse line that lacks PLC beta 4 was generated and the physiological significance of PLC beta 4 in murine visual function was investigated. Behavioral tests using a shuttle box demonstrated that the mice lacking PLC beta 4 were impaired in their visual processing abilities, whereas they showed no deficit in their auditory abilities. In addition, the PLC beta 4-null mice showed 4-fold reduction in the maximal amplitude of the rod a- and b-wave components of their electroretinograms relative to their littermate controls. However, recording from single rod photoreceptors did not reveal any significant differences between the PLC beta 4-null and wild-type littermates, nor were there any apparent differences in retinas examined with light microscopy. While the behavioral and electroretinographic results indicate that PLC beta 4 plays a significant role in mammalian visual signal processing, isolated rod recording shows little or no apparent deficit, suggesting that the effect of PLC beta 4 deficiency on the rod signaling pathway occurs at some stage after the initial phototransduction cascade and may require cell-cell interactions between rods and other retinal cells.

Clinical audit and the purchaser-provider interaction: different attitudes and expectations in the United Kingdom

OBJECTIVES

To explore and describe the views on clinical audit of healthcare purchasers and providers, and in particular the interaction between them, and hence to help the future development of an appropriate interaction between purchasers and providers.

DESIGN

Semistructured interviews.

SETTING

Four purchaser and provider pairings in the former Northern Region of the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

SUBJECTS

Chief executives, contracts managers, quality and audit leaders, directors of public health, consultants, general practitioners, audit support staff, and practice managers (total 42).

MAIN MEASURES

Attitudes on the present state and future development of clinical audit.

RESULTS

Purchasers and providers shared common views on the purpose of clinical audit, but there were important differences in their views on the level and appropriateness of involvement of health care purchasers, integration with present NHS structures and processes (including contracting and the internal market), priority setting for clinical audit, the effects of clinical audit on service development and purchasing, change in behaviour, and the sharing of information on the outcomes of clinical audit.

CONCLUSIONS

There are important differences in attitudes towards, and expectations of, clinical audit between health care purchasers and providers, at least in part due to the limited contact between them on audit to date. The nature of the relation and dialogue between purchasers and providers will be critical in determining whether clinical audit meets the differing aspirations of both groups, while achieving the ultimate goal of improving the quality of patient care.

Detection of coccidioidal antibodies by 33-kDa spherule antigen, Coccidioides EIA, and standard serologic tests in sera from patients evaluated for coccidioidomycosis

During a 9-month study of patients being evaluated for coccidioidomycosis, 1 or more serum samples were obtained from 138 patients with an illness suggestive of recent infection. In this group, standard immunodiffusion tests of unconcentrated sera were positive for 25; 49 additional patients had at least 1 reactive test result by newer enzyme-linked serologic tests. At least 11 of these 49 patients had coccidioidomycosis as determined by culture or subsequent standard serologic tests. Patients with coccidioidomycosis identified only by newer tests had fewer or milder clinical abnormalities than did patients in whom the disease was detected by standard tests. For 31 other patients with illness of a chronic or undetermined duration, newer tests detected only 10 more than the 18 identified by standard tests, suggesting that later in the course of illness, standard testing gains in sensitivity for coccidioidal infection.

An "early warning system' for health needs: surveillance of the quality of clinical services by audit of extra-contractual referrals (ECRs)

Extra-contractual referrals (ECRs) can be a cause of considerable anxiety to purchasing authorities, mainly because of their potential to generate unexpected expenditure. But ECRs can also be used as a tool for monitoring the demand for, and quality of, clinical services. ECRs were studied in the Darlington Health Authority district using a variety of methods including inter-disciplinary meetings, a series of interviews with local GPs, and a questionnaire to general practitioners on 230 consecutive ECRs. The methods and results of the questionnaire study are presented. The commonest reasons for making ECRs included the mistaken belief that a contract existed with the ECR provider, patient dissatisfaction with the local provider, and referral to benefit from shorter waiting lists. ECRs for bone-mass densitometry, orthopaedics, and ear nose and throat services were over-represented. Questionnaire results were validated by comparison with an interview study of all GPs in the district. We conclude that trends in ECRs can be monitored as a convenient "early warning system' to alert purchasing authorities to changes in demand or perceived problems with local provider units. ECR data must be interpreted in the context of further local background information from sources such as GPs and public health physicians. In the case of Darlington, scrutiny of ECRs has led to changes in services and contracts.

Children with asthma in schools: an opportunity for "healthy alliances" between health and education authorities

Head teachers of all primary and secondary schools in County Durham were surveyed during 1994 to investigate school policy and management of children with asthma. Results indicate a need and opportunity to improve asthma care for children at school through healthy alliances between the health and education authorities.

Nurses' beliefs and attitudes toward visiting in adult critical care settings

OBJECTIVE: To assess the beliefs and attitudes of critical care nurses about the effects of visiting on patients, staff and family. DESIGN: Both interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data on nurses' attitudes and beliefs about visiting and open visiting according to the format of Ajzen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action. SETTING: Five Utah intensive care units and three Ohio intensive care units. SAMPLE: Critical care nurses in Utah (N = 29) and Ohio (N = 41) were interviewed to assess their beliefs about the effects of visiting on patients, families, nurses and nursing care delivery. RESULTS: Nurses believed the consequence of visiting was more positive for the patient from a psychological perspective than from a physiological perspective but that the effects might differ depending on the patient, the visitor and the circumstances. They believed that visiting had negative consequences for families, because they became exhausted, and that visiting was disruptive for nursing care delivery. Their attitudes about effects of visiting on nursing staff were consistently more negative than were attitudes about the effects on the patient and the family. CONCLUSION: To provide an optimal situation for visiting, its negative consequences must be minimized and nurses' attitudes and beliefs about visiting must be assessed and addressed.

Nurses' beliefs and attitudes toward visiting in adult critical care settings

OBJECTIVE

To assess the beliefs and attitudes of critical care nurses about the effects of visiting on patients, staff and family.

DESIGN

Both interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data on nurses' attitudes and beliefs about visiting and open visiting according to the format of Ajzen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action.

SETTING

Five Utah intensive care units and three Ohio intensive care units.

SAMPLE

Critical care nurses in Utah (N = 29) and Ohio (N = 41) were interviewed to assess their beliefs about the effects of visiting on patients, families, nurses and nursing care delivery.

RESULTS

Nurses believed the consequence of visiting was more positive for the patient from a psychological perspective than from a physiological perspective but that the effects might differ depending on the patient, the visitor and the circumstances. They believed that visiting had negative consequences for families, because they became exhausted, and that visiting was disruptive for nursing care delivery. Their attitudes about effects of visiting on nursing staff were consistently more negative than were attitudes about the effects on the patient and the family.

CONCLUSION

To provide an optimal situation for visiting, its negative consequences must be minimized and nurses' attitudes and beliefs about visiting must be assessed and addressed.

Legionella tucsonensis sp. nov. isolated from a renal transplant recipient

A Legionella-like organism (strain 1087-AZ-H) was isolated from a pleural-fluid specimen from a renal transplant patient undergoing immunosuppressive therapy. Growth characteristics and gas-liquid chromatography profiles of the isolate were consistent with those for Legionella spp. The isolate fluoresced blue-white under long-wave UV light. Strain 1087-AZ-H was serologically distinct in the slide agglutination test with absorbed antisera. DNA hybridization studies placed it in a new Legionella species, Legionella tucsonensis (ATCC 49180).

Studies of adenovirus SV40 hybrid viruses. I. Assay system and further evidence for hybridization

The titers of adenovirus and SV40 genetic carriers in hybrid preparations (E46(+)) can be quantitated by determining the percentage of cells showing neoantigens stainable with fluorescent antibody (FA) at 21 to 24 hours; both titers can be obtained with a single coverslip. The adenovirus and SV40 antigen-inducing titers so obtained are of the same order of magnitude in stock preparations of E46(+) grown in either African green monkey kidney (AGMK) or human embryonic kidney tissue culture (HEK), and are generally within one log of the infectivity titer. Quantitative studies of 50 degrees C heat inactivation, ultracentrifugation, and equilibrium density gradient centrifugation of E46(+) gave no indication that SV40 neoantigen induction could be dissociated from adenovirus, whereas adenovirus and SV40 virus grown as a mixed infection were readily dissociated by these procedures. Pretreatment of HEK cells with a medium containing 5-fluorouracil desoxyriboside (FUDR) did not affect induction of either adenovirus or SV40 neoantigen or development of cytopathic effects after infection with E46(+), but did prevent formation of Ad. 7 viral antigen.