University of Tennessee Health Science Center

About: University of Tennessee Health Science Center is a education organization based out in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 15716 authors who have published 26884 publications receiving 1176697 citations.

The Collaborative Cross at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: developing a powerful resource for systems genetics.

Abstract: Complex traits and disease comorbidity in humans and in model organisms are the result of naturally occurring polymorphisms that interact with each other and with the environment. To ensure the availability of resources needed to investigate biomolecular networks and systems-level phenotypes underlying complex traits, we have initiated breeding of a new genetic reference population of mice, the Collaborative Cross. This population has been designed to optimally support systems genetics analysis. Its novel and important features include a high level of genetic diversity, a large population size to ensure sufficient power in high-dimensional studies, and high mapping precision through accumulation of independent recombination events. Implementation of the Collaborative Cross has been ongoing at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since May 2005. Production has been systematically managed using a software-assisted breeding program with fully traceable lineages, performed in a controlled environment. Currently, there are 650 lines in production, and close to 200 lines are now beyond their seventh generation of inbreeding. Retired breeders enter a high-throughput phenotyping protocol and DNA samples are banked for analyses of recombination history, allele drift and loss, and population structure. Herein we present a progress report of the Collaborative Cross breeding program at ORNL and a description of the kinds of investigations that this resource will support.

Abnormalities of striatal projection neurons and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in presymptomatic Huntington's disease.

Abstract: HUNTINGTON'S disease is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by slowly progressive personality changes, dementia, and movement disorders.1 , 2 The average age at onset is 30 to 40 years, and the disease lasts for an average of 15 to 20 years. Analysis with restriction-fragmentlength polymorphisms (RFLPs) has localized the Huntington's disease gene close to the telomere of the short arm of chromosome 4.1 2 3 Prominent striatal atrophy with loss of striatal neurons and relative sparing of fibers of passage and afferent axons is the pathological hallmark of Huntington's disease.4 Recent studies have demonstrated a distinct pattern of vulnerability of striatal neurons in Huntington's . . .

Clinical prediction rule for identifying children with cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis at very low risk of bacterial meningitis.

Abstract: ContextChildren with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis are routinely admitted to the hospital and treated with parenteral antibiotics, although few have bacterial meningitis. We previously developed a clinical prediction rule, the Bacterial Meningitis Score, that classifies patients at very low risk of bacterial meningitis if they lack all of the following criteria: positive CSF Gram stain, CSF absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of at least 1000 cells/μL, CSF protein of at least 80 mg/dL, peripheral blood ANC of at least 10 000 cells/μL, and a history of seizure before or at the time of presentation.ObjectiveTo validate the Bacterial Meningitis Score in the era of widespread pneumococcal conjugate vaccination.Design, Setting, and PatientsA multicenter, retrospective cohort study conducted in emergency departments of 20 US academic medical centers through the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Collaborative Research Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. All children aged 29 days to 19 years who presented at participating emergency departments between January 1, 2001, and June 30, 2004, with CSF pleocytosis (CSF white blood cells ≥10 cells/μL) and who had not received antibiotic treatment before lumbar puncture.Main Outcome MeasureThe sensitivity and negative predictive value of the Bacterial Meningitis Score.ResultsAmong 3295 patients with CSF pleocytosis, 121 (3.7%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1%-4.4%) had bacterial meningitis and 3174 (96.3%; 95% CI, 95.5%-96.9%) had aseptic meningitis. Of the 1714 patients categorized as very low risk for bacterial meningitis by the Bacterial Meningitis Score, only 2 had bacterial meningitis (sensitivity, 98.3%; 95% CI, 94.2%-99.8%; negative predictive value, 99.9%; 95% CI, 99.6%-100%), and both were younger than 2 months old. A total of 2518 patients (80%) with aseptic meningitis were hospitalized.ConclusionsThis large multicenter study validates the Bacterial Meningitis Score prediction rule in the era of conjugate pneumococcal vaccine as an accurate decision support tool. The risk of bacterial meningitis is very low (0.1%) in patients with none of the criteria. The Bacterial Meningitis Score may be helpful to guide clinical decision making for the management of children presenting to emergency departments with CSF pleocytosis.