Although our findings suggest a weak association between VDR SNP FokI and the MS risk in women, further studies are needed to explore the role of VDR polymorphic alterations in MS disease etiology and pathogenesis.

We showed for the first time that BsmI genotype BB (AA) is associated with the decreased susceptibility to MS in Slovak population. We propose the BsmI gene polymorphism to be one of the important genetic markers in evaluation of the risk of MS. However, our data suggest that VDR gene polymorphisms ApaI, BsmI and TaqI are not useful in the prediction of disease disability progression rate in MS in Slovaks.

We showed for the first time in Central European Slovak population that MS onset age is an early marker that is in the positive correlation with disease disability progression rate, evaluated by MSSS score. We conclude that relapsing-remitting MS patients older at clinical onset have a higher risk of unfavorable prognosis (Tab. 2, Fig. 1, Ref. 21).

This is the first study performed to analyse the association of HLA-DRB1/DQB1 with susceptibility to MS in Slovakia. The results of our study confirm that HLA class II alleles, genotypes and haplotypes are associated with MS risk.

No abstract

Background: The aim of our study was to assess the role of laser polarimetry and visual evoked potentials (VEP) as potential biomarkers of disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS).Participants: A total of 41 patients with MS (82 eyes) and 22 age-related healthy volunteers (44 eyes) completed the study. MS patients were divided into two groups, one (ON) with a history of optic neuritis (17 patients, 34 eyes) and another group (NON) without it (24 patients, 48 eyes). The MS patients and controls underwent laser polarimetry (GDx) examination of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). In the MS group, we also examined: Kurtzke “expanded disability status scale” (EDSS), the duration of the disorder, VEP – latency and amplitude, and conventional brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our results were statistically analyzed using ANOVA, Mann–Whitney, and Spearman correlation analyses.Results: In the MS group, brain atrophy and new T2 brain lesions in MRI correlated with both VEP latencies and amplitudes. Separate comparisons revealed VEP latency testing to be less sensitive in ON than in NON-patients. In ON patients, VEP amplitudes correlated mildly with brain atrophy (r = −0.15) and strongly with brain new MRI lesions (r = −0.8). In NON-patients, highly significant correlation of new MRI brain lesions with VEP latencies (r = 0.63, r = 0.6) and amplitudes (r = −0.3, r = −4.2) was found. EDSS also correlated with brain atrophy in this group (r = 0.5). Our study did not find a correlation of GDx measures with MRI tests. The GDx method was not able to detect whole brain demyelinization and the degeneration process, but was only able to reveal the involvement of optic nerves in ON and NON-patients.Conclusion: In our study, we found that both methods (VEP and GDx) can be used for the detection of optic nerve damage, but VEP was found to be superior in evaluating whole brain demyelinization and axonal degeneration. Both VEP and MRI, but not GDx, have an important role in monitoring disease progression in MS patients, independent of the ON history.

The 5s ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) sequences were determined for Bacteroides fragilis, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bacteroides capillosus, Bacteroides veroralis, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Anaerorhabdus furcosus, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Fusobacterium mortiferum, and Fusobacterium varium. A dendrogram constructed by a clustering algorithm from these sequences, which were aligned with all other hitherto known eubacterial5S rRNA sequences, showed differences as well as similarities with respect to results derived from 16s rRNA analyses. In the 5s rRNA dendrogram, Bacteroides clustered together with Cytophaga and Fusobacterium, as in 16s rRNA analyses. Intraphylum relationships deduced from 5s rRNAs suggested that Bacteroides is specifically related to Cytophaga rather than to Fusobacterium, as was suggested by 16s rRNA analyses. Previous taxonomic considerations concerning the genus Bacteroides, based on biochemical and physiological data, were confirmed by the 5s rRNA sequence analysis.The genus Bacteroides as described by Holdeman et al. (12) consists of more than 40 species which vary considerably in physiological, biochemical, and chemical properties and possess deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) base compositions within the range from 28 to 61 mol% guanine plus cytosine (G+C). It is now generally accepted that a DNA base composition difference of more than 10 mol% G+C implies that the species concerned are unrelated at the generic level, yet notable exceptions occur (25). On the basis of physiological and biochemical properties, such as peptidoglycan composition, acid end products, lipids, and fatty acids (for a review see reference 30), various proposals have been made to exclude certain species from the genus Bacteroides (3, 30). Many of these proposals are in good agreement with ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) homology data (17). Thus, many of the species listed in Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology (12) have now been given separate generic status (1, 2, 4, 23,28,29,[31][32][33]. Recently, it has been suggested (3) that only members of the so-called "Bacteroides fragilis group" (viz

BackgroundPrimary diffuse leptomeningeal gliomatosis (PDLG) is a very rare neuro-oncological disease, with only 90 cases of PDLG described in medical literature so far.Case presentationWe present a case report of a 56-years-old female patient, who was originally hospitalized due to cervical spine pain lasting several months. Despite complex diagnostics and treatment, the neurological state of the patient progressively deteriorated. Patient died 10 months after the first reported symptom. Postmortem pathological findings resulted in the diagnosis of PDLG.ConclusionsAffection of the cervical spine in early stages of PDLG is rare and has been described in only six patients so far. PDLG is a fatal neuro-oncological disease and it must be kept in mind in the differential diagnosis of persistent back pain syndromes.