Our findings show that SN (SACC-LAI) connectivity correlates with behavioral signs of consciousness, whereas DMN (PCC-LLPC) connectivity instead predicts recovery of consciousness.

Citation: Chen Q, Ma Q, Wu C, et al. Macular vascular fractal dimension in the deep capillary layer as an early indicator of microvascular loss for retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2017;58:3785-3794. DOI:10.1167/ iovs.17-21461 PURPOSE. To determine the ability of fractal dimension to detect early changes in the retinal microvascular network imaged by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) in type 2 diabetic patients. METHODS.Sixty-seven patients with type 2 diabetic mellitus (DM) (48 with no diabetic retinopathy [DR], 19 with minimal DR) and 40 control subjects. Macular OCT-A images of the superficial and deep retinal capillary layers in a 2.5-mm diameter concentric annular zone (excluding the foveal avascular zone) were subdivided into six annular rings and four quadrants. A custom automated algorithm was developed to quantify the complexity and density of the two retinal capillary layers by fractal analysis.RESULTS. Compared to controls, the fractal dimensional parameter (D box ) of the two retinal capillary layers in most regions was significantly lower in diabetic patients with minimal DR (P < 0.05). The D box of the diabetic patients with no DR was also decreased in most regions of the deep retinal capillary layer (P < 0.05), but not in the superficial retinal capillary layer (P > 0.05). Based on the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the D box values for the deep retinal capillary layer had the highest index to discriminate diabetic patients with and without minimal DR from controls. CONCLUSIONS.Fractal dimension based on OCT-A has the potential to quantitatively characterize retinal microvascular changes in the early stage of DM. Changes in the fractal dimension in the deep retinal capillary layer could be an early indicator of microvasculature changes associated with retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients.

The throat is an ecological assemblage involved human cells and microbiota, and the colonizing bacteria are important factors in balancing this environment. However, this bacterial community profile has thus been poorly investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the microbial biology of the larynx and to analyze the throat biodiversity in laryngeal carcinoma patients compared to a control population in a case-control study. Barcoded pyrosequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene was used. We collected tissue samples from 29 patients with laryngeal carcinoma and 31 control patients with vocal cord polyps. The findings of high-quality sequence datasets revealed 218 genera from 13 phyla in the laryngeal mucosa. The predominant communities of phyla in the larynx were Firmicutes (54%), Fusobacteria (17%), Bacteroidetes (15%), Proteobacteria (11%), and Actinobacteria (3%). The leading genera were Streptococcus (36%), Fusobacterium (15%), Prevotella (12%), Neisseria (6%), and Gemella (4%). The throat bacterial compositions were highly different between laryngeal carcinoma subjects and control population (p = 0.006). The abundance of the 26 genera was significantly different between the laryngeal cancer and control groups by metastats analysis (p<0.05). Fifteen genera may be associated with laryngeal carcinoma by partial least squares discriminant analysis (p<0.001). In summary, this study revealed the microbiota profiles in laryngeal mucosa from tissue specimens. The compositions of bacteria community in throat were different between laryngeal cancer patients and controls, and probably were related with this carcinoma. The disruption of this bio-ecological niche might be a risk factor for laryngeal carcinoma.

The dynamic change of circulating FGF21 was associated with alterations in insulin levels in response to glucose challenge in humans. These findings support the role of FGF21 as a potential regulator of insulin secretion and glucose metabolism in humans.