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Background:Individuals with IBM have reduced hand function leading to limitation in daily activities. There is an urgent need to develop therapies and assistive devices to improve every-day function and quality of life for individuals with IBM.Objectives:We aimed to investigate if a power enhancing glove is feasible to use in persons with IBM.Methods:Data were collected during The Myositis Association’s (TMA) patient conference in September 2023. The study was open to interested people with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies who perceived hand weakness. For the purposes of this analysis, we are focusing on people with IBM.The glove’s assistive force in grip and pincer strength is triggered by an ‘intention-detection’ logic that reacts to and supports the follow-through of a hand movement initiation by the user.Physical function (IBM-Patient Reported Outcome Upper Extremity Function Scale (IBM-PRO), IBM-Functional Rating Scale (IBM-FRS)), pain (numeric rating scale) and grip strength (Jamar) were measured to assess degree of impairment.Subsequently three activities listed in the modified IBM-PRO that participants perceived as difficult were selected. The participants performed the activities rating their perceived limitation on a 5-point scale (0 = “unable to do”, 4= “without any difficulty”) first without the glove and then upon using the glove.The glove was fitted individually to the left or right hand. After testing the glove, the participants answered a series of open-ended questions regarding their perception of the glove.Results:The study included 40 persons with IBM. Median age 69 years, 52% male. The participants had reduced grip strength (kg)(md;range) (3.75;1.3-10.7) and physical function (IBM-FRS 20;2-38, IBM-PRO 23;1-44).The three most commonly selected IBM-PRO activities, with pre-and post-glove ratings are shown in Table 1. All activities were perceived easier to perform with the glove.In the open-ended questions, participants documented that the glove would be beneficial for use in everyday tasks, lifting objects, grocery shopping, stabilizing the hand and would increase independence. Most of the participants did not foresee activities in their daily routine where it might not work, however, some persons conveyed foreseeing some difficulty of glove use during personal hygiene and social activities. A few showed an interest to use the glove on both hands.Conclusion:Based on this preliminary analysis the glove appears to increase hand function and might improve physical function in persons with IBM who experience impaired hand-function. A prospective intervention study is planned to further investigate the usefulness of the glove.REFERENCES:NIL.Acknowledgements:On behalf of MIHRA Exercise and Rehabilitation Scientific Working Group.Disclosure of Interests:None declared.

A systematic retrospective study on animal poisonings in Germany (wildlife excluded) between January 2012 and December 2015 was conducted. Data were collected on animal exposure calls to German poison centres, poisoning cases presenting to the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover Small Animal and Equine Clinics, cases involving off-label use of veterinary medicinal products reported to the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety and toxicological submissions to the Institute of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Pharmacy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Descriptive statistics were used to characterise animal type, exposure reason, type and substance, year/month of exposure, case severity and outcome. An evaluation of the data and data sources was also carried out. Variation in poisoning patterns was seen. However, dogs and cats were the most frequently reported species and medicinal products, pesticides and plants were consistently implicated as top causes of poisoning. Advantages and disadvantages were associated with each data source; bias was found to be an important consideration when evaluating poisoning data. This study provided useful information on animal poisonings in Germany and highlights the need for standardised approaches for the collection, evaluation and integration of poisoning data from multiple sources.

Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA) biopsy is a widely used minimally invasive sampling procedure for cytological diagnosis. This study investigates the feasibility of using US-FNA samples for both cytological diagnosis and whole transcriptome RNA-sequencing analysis (RNA-Seq), with the ultimate aim of improving canine prostate cancer management. The feasibility of the US-FNA procedure was evaluated intra vitam on 43 dogs. Additionally, aspirates from 31 euthanised dogs were collected for standardising the procedure. Each aspirate was separated into two subsamples: for cytology and RNA extraction. Additional prostate tissue samples served as control for RNA quantity and quality evaluation, and differential expression analysis. The US-FNA sampling procedure was feasible in 95% of dogs. RNA isolation of US-FNA samples was successfully performed using phenol-chloroform extraction. The extracted RNA of 56% of a subset of US-FNA samples met the quality requirements for RNA-Seq. Expression analysis revealed that only 153 genes were exclusively differentially expressed between non-malignant US-FNAs and tissues. Moreover, only 36 differentially expressed genes were associated with the US-FNA sampling technique and unrelated to the diagnosis. Furthermore, the gene expression profiles clearly distinguished between non-malignant and malignant samples. This proves US-FNA to be useful for molecular profiling.

Abstract Background Measurement of concentrations of acute-phase proteins (APPs) is used as an aid in the diagnosis of a variety of diseases in animals. Objective To determine the concentration of APPs in dogs with steroid responsive meningitis-arteritis (SRMA) and other neurologic diseases. Animals One hundred and thirty-three dogs with neurologic diseases, 6 dogs with sepsis, and 8 healthy dogs were included in the study. Thirty-six dogs had SRMA (31 of which had monitoring), 14 dogs had other meningoencephalitides (ME), 32 had disk disease (IVDD/DLSS), 26 had tumors affecting the central nervous system (TCNS), and 25 had idiopathic epilepsy (IE). Methods Prospective, observational study: C-reactive protein (CRP), α2-macroglobulin (AMG), and albumin concentrations were determined in the serum or plasma. CRP was also measured in the cerebrospinal fluid. Results Serum CRP was significantly higher in dogs with SRMA (inline image= 142 μg/mL ± 75) and sepsis (inline image= 114 μg/mL ± 67) in comparison with dogs with other neurologic diseases (inline image= 2.3–21 μg/mL; P < .001). There was no significant difference detected in AMG between groups. Serum albumin concentration was significantly lower (P < .01) in dogs with SRMA (inline image= 3.2 g/dL ± 0.41) than in other groups (inline image= 3.6–3.9 g/dL). Serum CRP concentration of SRMA dogs correlated with alkaline phosphatase levels (r= 0.515, P= .003). Conclusions and Clinical Importance CRP concentrations in serum are useful in diagnosis of dogs with SRMA. Serum CRP could be used as a monitoring parameter in treatment management of these dogs.

The TRIUMF Weak Interaction Symmetry Test (TWIST) collaboration has nearly completed the world's most precise measurement of the energy-angle spectrum of positrons from the decay of highly polarized muons. A simultaneous measurement of the muon decay parameters ρ, δ, and μπξ tests the Standard Model (SM) in a purely leptonic process and provides improved limits for relevant extensions to the SM. Since the completion of data taking in 2007, the analysis has focused on reducing systematic uncertainties, estimating residual biases, and evaluating consistency checks. The analysis was blind with respect to the central values of the parameters, so the results were unknown until the values of the hidden parameters were revealed. The total uncertainties for the parameters are dominated by systematic uncertainties. While there are still some subtle systematic effects that preclude the determination of final values of the decay parameters, the goal of an order-of-magnitude improvement on pre-TWIST precisions has been achieved.

The third dog showed hepatic and renal necrosis, indicative of nodularin intoxication, but no signs of lymphoid depletion at postmortem examination or histological examination. Since the focus of the present study was to demonstrate the occurrence of lymphoid changes as a potentially new or unrecognised aspect of nodularin intoxication in carnivores, no further description of the clinical and pathological findings in the third dog is included in this report. The simultaneous onset of clinical signs associated with characteristic hepatic and renal lesions in these dogs, following ingestion of water containing a nodularin-producing algal bloom, are indicative of nodularin intoxication. [...]although cyanobacteria are primarily known as potent nephrotoxins and hepatotoxins, intoxication must also be taken into consideration as a differential diagnosis of lymphoid depletion.

The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF aims to measure the branching ratio of pion decays R = Γ(π+ → e+νe + π+ → e+ νeγ) Γ(π+→μ+νμ + π+ → μ+νμγ) with precision <0.1%, providing a stringent test of the Standard Model hypothesis of electron-muon universality and a search for new physics.

Besides man, the dog is the only known mammalian species that spontaneously develops carcinomas of the prostate with considerable frequency. For this reason, the dog is considered to be the only useful animal model for spontaneously occurring prostate malignancies in man. Cytogenetic investigations of human prostate cancers have revealed the frequent occurrence of trisomies 7, 8, and 17. Chromosome analyses of canine prostate carcinomas are rare. In this report we present 2 cases of canine prostate cancer showing a clonal polysomy 13 along with complex karyotype changes. Along with a previous report demonstrating polysomy 13 as the only karyotype deviation in a canine prostate cancer the present report supports the hypothesis that in canine prostate cancer, polysomy 13 is a recurrent cytogenetic aberration linked to the development of the disease. As human chromosomes (HSA) 8q and 4q and the canine chromosome (CFA) 13 share high homology, these results suggest that a conserved area on these chromosomes is involved in tumorigenesis in both species.

Abstract Background Canine leishmaniasis (CanL) is a common cause of epistaxis in dogs residing in endemic areas. The pathogenesis of CanL-associated epistaxis has not been fully explored because of the limited number of cases reported so far. Hypothesis Epistaxis in CanL could be attributed to more than 1 pathomechanism such as hemostatic dysfunction, biochemical abnormalities, chronic rhinitis, and coinfections occurring in various combinations. Animals Fifty-one dogs with natural CanL. Methods The allocation of 51 dogs in this cross-sectional study was based on the presence (n = 24) or absence (n = 27) of epistaxis. The potential associations among epistaxis and concurrent infections (Ehrlichia canis, Bartonella spp., and Aspergillus spp.), biochemical and hemostatic abnormalities, and nasal histopathology were investigated. Results Hypergammaglobulinemia (P= .044), increased serum viscosity (P= .038), decreased platelet aggregation response to collagen (P= .042), and nasal mucosa ulceration (P= .039) were more common in the dogs with epistaxis than in those without epistaxis. The other significant differences between the 2 groups involved total serum protein (P= .029) and γ-globulin (P= .013) concentrations, which were higher, and the percentage platelet aggregation to collagen, which was lower (P= .012) in the epistaxis dogs. Clinical Importance CanL-associated epistaxis appears to be the result of multiple and variable pathogenetic factors such as thrombocytopathy, hyperglobulinemia-induced serum hyperviscosity, and nasal mucosa ulceration.