No abstract

A total of 514 panelists completed the survey; 65% reported current moderate/severe/very severe psoriasis. Awareness of available treatment options ranged from 98% for prescription topical agents to 75% for photo/light therapy, and < 50% for prescription oral (49%) or injectable (35%) medications. A total of 92% of respondents had been treated with and 61% were currently taking prescription topical agents. Photo/light therapy had been used by 38% and was currently used by 7% of respondents. Prescribed oral medication had been taken by 25% and was currently used by 8%. Few subjects had been treated with injectables in the past (10%) or currently (5%). Overall, 24% of respondents were very satisfied with their current treatment. A total of 63% of respondents taking injectables were very satisfied, compared with 38% of those taking prescribed oral medication and 21% of those receiving photo/light therapy.Conclusions Most respondents with moderate to severe psoriasis were unaware of all treatment options; systemic treatments were not commonly utilized. Treatment satisfaction rates were low, highlighting the need to ensure greater patient education on and use of available therapeutic options.

Critical flicker frequency (CFF) threshold is defined as the frequency at which a flickering light is indistinguishable from a steady, non-flickering light. CFF is useful for assessing the temporal characteristics of the visual system. While CFF responses are believed to reflect activity in the central visual system, little is known about how these temporal frequencies are processed in the visual cortex. The current paper estimated the CFF threshold for cells in the rat visual cortex by recording single unit responses to flickering stimuli. Results showed that: (1) there was a broad range of temporal tuning, (2) CFF threshold was lower in simple cells than in complex and hypercomplex cells, and (3) there was no significant difference in CFF threshold between areas 17 and 18.

The expression of multiple classes of voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) allows neurons to tailor calcium signaling to functionally discrete cellular regions. In the developing hippocampus a central issue is whether the expression of VDCC subtypes plays a role in key phases such as migration and synaptogenesis. Using radioligand binding and immunoblotting, we show that some N-type VDCCs exist before birth, consistent with a role in migration; however, most N-VDCC subunit expression is postnatal, coinciding with synaptogenesis. Immunoprecipitation studies indicate that the increased expression of N-VDCCs in early development occurs without subunit switching because there is no change in the fraction of ␤ 3 subunits in the N-VDCC ␣ 1B -␤ 3 heteromers. Fluorescence imaging of cell surface N-VDCCs during this period reveals that N-VDCCs are expressed on somata before dendrites and that this expression is asynchronous between different subfields of the hippocampus (CA3-CA4 before CA1-CA2 and dentate gyrus). Our data argue that N-VDCC expression is an important cue in the genesis of synaptic transmission in discrete hippocampal subfields.