BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Contrast-enhancing MS lesions are important markers of active inflammation in the diagnostic work-up of MS and in disease monitoring with MR imaging. Because intravenous contrast agents involve an expense and a potential risk of adverse events, it would be desirable to identify active lesions without using a contrast agent. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether pre-contrast injection tissue-relaxation rates and proton density of MS lesions, by using a new quantitative MR imaging sequence, can identify active lesions.

The aim of this study was to analyse the dynamics of tissue damage and inflammatory response markers perioperatively and whether these differ between women operated with robotic and abdominal hysterectomy in treating early-stage endometrial cancer. At a Swedish university hospital fifty women with early-stage low-risk endometrial cancer were allocated to robotic or abdominal hysterectomy in a randomiszed controlled trial. Blood samples reflecting inflammatory responses (high sensitivity CRP, white blood cells (WBC), thrombocytes, IL-6, cortisol) and tissue damage (creatine kinase (CK), highmobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1)) were collected one week preoperatively, just before surgery, postoperatively at two, 24 and 48 hours, and one and six weeks postoperatively. High sensitivity CRP (p = 0.03), WBC (p < 0.01), IL-6 (p = 0.03) and CK (p = 0.03) were significantly lower in the robotic group, but fast transitory. Cortisol returned to baseline two hours after robotic hysterectomy but remained elevated in the abdominal group comparable to the preoperative high levels for both groups just before surgery (p < 0.0001). Thrombocytes and HMGB1 were not affected by the mode of surgery. Postoperative inflammatory response and tissue damage were lower after robotic hysterectomy compared to abdominal hysterectomy. A significant remaining cortisol elevation two hours after surgery may reflect a higher stress response in the abdominal group.

No abstract

Although oxylipins are involved in inflammation, data on these lipid mediators in multiple sclerosis are sparse. In this study, a panel of oxylipins were analysed swith liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 41 treatment naïve patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) or relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) and 22 healthy controls. CSF levels of 9-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (9-HODE) and 13-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (13-HODE) were significantly higher in patients than in healthy controls (9-HODE median 380 nM (interquartile range 330-450 nM) in patients and 290 nM (interquartile range 250-340 nM) in controls, 13-HODE median 930 nM (interquartile range 810-1080 nM) in patients and 690 nM (interquartile range 570-760 nM) in controls, p < 0.001 in Mann-Whitney U tests). 9-HODE and 13-HODE performed well for separation of patients and healthy controls (AUC 0.85 and 0.88, respectively, in ROC curve analysis). However, baseline CSF levels of the oxylipins did not differ between patients with signs of disease activity during one, two and four years of follow-up and patients without. In conclusion, this study indicates that 9-HODE and 13-HODE levels are increased in CSF from CIS and RRMS patients compared with healthy controls, but does not support 9-HODE or 13-HODE as prognostic biomarkers of disease activity in patients during follow-up.

Aims Residual beta cell function in Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is associated with lower risk of complications. Autoantigen therapy with GAD-alum (Diamyd®) given in three intralymphatic injections with oral Vitamin D has shown promising results in persons with T1D carrying the HLA DR3-DQ2 haplotype in the phase IIb trial DIAGNODE-2. We aimed to explore the efficacy of intralymphatic GAD-alum on blood glucose recorded by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). Methods DIAGNODE-2 (NCT03345004) was a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of 109 recent-onset T1D patients aged 12–24 years with GAD65 antibodies and fasting C-peptide &gt;0.12 nmol/L, which randomized patients to three intralymphatic injections of 4 μg GAD-alum and oral Vitamin D, or placebo. We report results for exploratory endpoints assessed by 14-day CGM at Months 0, 6 and 15. Treatment arms were compared by mixed-effects models for repeated measures adjusting for baseline values. Results We included 98 patients with CGM recordings of sufficient quality (DR3-DQ2-positive patients: 27 GAD-alum-treated and 15 placebo-treated). In DR3-DQ2-positive patients, % time in range (TIR, 3.9-10 mmol/L) declined less between baseline and Month 15 in GAD-alum-treated compared to placebo-treated patients (-5.1% and -16.7%, respectively, p=0.0075), with reduced time &gt;13.9 mmol/L (p=0.0036), and significant benefits on the glucose management indicator (p=0.0025). No differences were detected for hypoglycaemia. GAD-alum compared to placebo lowered the increase in glycaemic variability (standard deviation) observed in both groups (p=0.0219). Change in C-peptide was correlated with the change in TIR. Conclusions Intralymphatic GAD-alum improves glycaemic control in recently diagnosed T1D patients carrying HLA DR3-DQ2.