Forages and Pastures Symposium: assessing drought vulnerability of agricultural production systems in context of the 2012 drought.

Weather and climate events and agronomic enterprise are coupled via crop phenology and yield, which is temperature and precipitation dependent. Additional coupling between weather and climate and agronomic enterprise occurs through agricultural practices such as tillage, irrigation, erosion, livestock management, and forage. Thus, the relationship between precipitation, temperature, and yield is coupled to the relationship between temperature, precipitation, and drought. Unraveling the different meteorological and climatological patterns by comparing different growing seasons provides insight into how drought conditions develop and what agricultural producers can do to mitigate and adapt to drought conditions. The 2012 drought in the United States greatly impacted the agricultural sector of the economy. With comparable severity and spatial extent of the droughts of the 1930s, 1950s, and 1980s, the 2012 drought impacted much of the U.S. crop and livestock producers via decreased forage and feed. This brief summary of drought impacts to agricultural production systems includes 1) the basics of drought; 2) the meteorology and climatology involved in forecasting, predicting, and monitoring drought with attribution of the 2012 drought explored in detail; and 3) comparative analysis completed between the 2011 and 2012 growing season. This synthesis highlights the complex nature of drought in agriculture production systems as producers prepare for future climate variability.

[The diagnostic challenge of corticobasal degeneration: distinction between clinical syndrome and pathology]. / Die schwierige Diagnose der kortikobasalen Degeneration: Unterscheidung zwischen klinischem Syndrom und pathologischer Diagnose.

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by linear progression, asymmetrical and extrapyramidal symptoms such as rigor and dystonia, as well as by variable cortical symptoms including apraxia, cortical sensory deficits, the alien limb phenomenon and myoclonism of the reflexes. Pathological changes of CBD consist of characteristic taupathology in the gray and white matter. However, there are also patients with neurodegenerative diseases with a different underlying pathology that nevertheless appear clinically as CBD. For that reason, the term corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is commonly used to describe the clinical features, whereas the term CBD is reserved for the pathological entity. Moreover, patients with the typical pathology of CBD can present clinical signs consistent with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) or progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). We demonstrate this clinico-pathological heterogeneity by presenting two illustrative case reports. The first patient developed the typical clinical symptoms of progressive supranuclear palsy, while exhibiting pathologically CBD. The second patient showed clinical signs of CBS, although pathologically she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. These exemplary cases underscore the need to distinguish carefully between the clinical syndrome of CBS and the pathologically defined entity of CBD.

Antimicrobial therapy of unexplained fever in neutropenic patients--guidelines of the Infectious Diseases Working Party (AGIHO) of the German Society of Hematology and Oncology (DGHO), Study Group Interventional Therapy of Unexplained Fever, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Supportivmassnahmen in der Onkologie (ASO) of the Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft (DKG-German Cancer Society).

Cytostatic chemotherapy of hematological malignancies is often complicated by neutropenia, which increases the risk of infections, especially if the neutrophil count is below 500/microl. Frequently, fever is the first, and in most patients the only, sign of an infection. Unexplained fever is defined as follows: temperature of >/=38.3 degrees C or >/=38.0 degrees C for at least 1 h, or measured twice within 12 h, if the neutrophil count is <500/microl or <1000/microl with predicted decline to 500/microl. Different risk categories can be identified according to the duration of neutropenia: low risk /=10 days. An empirical mono- or duotherapy with antipseudomonal and antistreptococcal agents should be initiated immediately. In the low risk patient group, oral therapy with cipro-, levo-, or ofloxacin combined with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid is permissible. For standard and high risk patients, monotherapy can be carried out with either ceftazidime, cefepime, piperacillin with tazobactam or a carbapenem. In duotherapy, a single dose of an aminoglycoside is combined with acylaminopenicillin or a cephalosporin of the third or fourth generation. The addition of glycopeptides in empirical therapy should only be considered in the presence of severe mucositis, or if a catheter-associated infection is suspected. If fever persists after 72-96 h of first-line therapy with antibiotics, the regimen should be modified (with the exception of e.g. coagulase-negative staphylococci infections, because these infections take longer to respond). Intermediate risk patients should additionally receive an aminoglycoside after monotherapy (penicillin or a cephalosporin). If a carbapenem was administered for monotherapy, this can be followed by a quinolone and/or a glycopeptide. In the high risk group, the same modifications should be made as in the intermediate risk group but with additional systemic antifungal treatment. In the presence of unexplained fever, fluconazole can be administered at first, but if this fails, amphotericin B (conventional or liposomal), itraconazole, voriconazole or caspofungin should be started. After defervescence to <38 degrees C, treatment should be continued for 7 days if the neutrophil count is <1000/microl, and for 2 days if the neutrophil count is >1000/microl.

[Hemorrhagic diathesis as initial symptom of stomach carcinoma]. / Hämorrhagische Diathese als Erstsymptom eines Magenkarzinoms.

BACKGROUND: Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (MAHA) and disseminated intravasal coagulation (DIC) as initial paraneoplastic symptoms of a solid tumor present a rare clinical situation. CASE REPORT: In 1998 a female patient was admitted due to multiple thrombosis, thrombocytopenia and fever. The initial diagnostic procedures revealed peri-aortic lymphomas and a tumor bulk (7 x 8 cm) in the upper abdomen. Gastroscopy revealed a 2 cm ulcer at the back side of the gastric corpus. Histologically, a signet-ring cell carcinoma was diagnosed. Final diagnosis stated a multilocular metastasising gastric cancer with infiltration of bone, peritoneum and dura and signet-cell infiltration of the bone marrow. Hematologic investigation in view of multiple paraneoplastic thrombosis revealed a microangiopathic hemolytic anemia associated with disseminated intravasal coagulation. Parallel to initial symptomatic therapy of coagulopathy, systemic cytostatic therapy with CDDP and VP-16 was initiated. In addition, radiotherapy of the brain was performed. After histologic confirmation of the diagnosis, weekly therapy with 5-FU (2600 mg/m2) and folinic acid (500 mg/m2) according to the Ardalan protocol was performed. After first signs of moderate response, oxaliplatin (60 mg/m2, day 1) was added. Although the chemotherapy dose had to be reduced due to prolonged neutropenia, the disturbances of hemostasis resolved completely resulting in reduced substitution rates with fresh frozen plasma (FFP) and platelets. Unfortunately, the patient died at home due to pulmonary embolism. CONCLUSION: Tumor-associated hemostaseologic alteration requires immediate substitution of FFP and platelets. However, it should be followed by specific therapy of malignancy, since tumor-induced metabolites (e.g. mucin) maintain the alteration of hemostasis. Chemotherapy may therefore be the best strategy to prevent complications such as MAHA and DIC.

HCG induced hyperthyreosis in germ cell cancer.

Human germ cell tumors have the unique capacity for totipotential differentiation. AFP (the product of normal yolk sac) and HCG (produced by trophoblastic tissues) are frequently produced by germ cell tumors. The a-subunit of the glycoprotein HCG is identical to that of several pituitary glycoprotein hormones (e.g. TSH, LH, FSH), whereas the b-subunit of HCG, TSH, LH and FSH is homologous but distinct in the terminal amino acid sequence suggesting that HCG is part of a superfamily of gestational hormones. However, the role of TSH within this hormone superfamily is still not yet established. A 24-year old patient was admitted to our clinic because of a widespread recurrence of a germ cell tumor (stage IIIC, Lugano classification). The routine hematologic and blood chemical tests were normal, yet, an elevated HCG was found. In addition, increased levels of the thyroid hormones FT3 and FT4 were seen, although, this was not associated with clinical symptoms of a hyperthyreosis. There was no history of hyperthyreosis and thyroidal autoantibody screening revealed normal titers. An ultrasound examination of the thyroid gland showed no abnormalities and no iodine exposure had occurred during the last months. To mobilize peripheral stem cells (PBSC) he was initially treated with paclitaxel (175 mg/m2) and ifosfamide (8.000 mg/m2)) followed by apheresis of PBSC. The patient was then entered in our phase-II-study for relapsing germ cell carcinomas using a high-dose chemotherapy regime (paclitaxel 175 mg/m2, ifosfamide 9.000 mg/m2, carboplatin 900 mg/m2, etoposide 900 mg/m2) with subsequent retransfusion of collected stem cells. Due to cranial metastases an cranial irradiation was also performed. After three courses of this protocol an excellent partial remission of the tumor lesions was achieved and the HCG value dramatically decreased. Due to elevated thyroidal hormones, the patient was initially treated with thiamazole (20 mg) resulting in decrease of the thyroidal hormones. Thus, the thiamazole dose was reduced to 5 mg and then omitted. The decrease of the thyroidal hormones FT3 and FT4 strongly correlated with the reduction of HCG values (r2 0.91 and 0.77, p < 0.0008). To date there is only slight evidence that enhanced HCG levels may cause, at least in part, a hyperthyreosis (e.g. gestational hyperthyreosis), however, the underlying biochemical mechanism still remains unclear. In this case report we have demonstrated a clear positive correlation between HCG levels and thyroidal hormones in a patient with germ cell tumor suggesting a direct stimulation of hormone producing thyroidal cells by HCG, however, this was not associated with clinical symptoms of hyperthyreosis. Currently, several in vitro studies are underway in our laboratory to further elucidate the biochemical mechanisms of HCG induced hyperthyreosis.

Actimetry in sleep medicine.

Actigraphy is more and more used in the longterm record of sleep of patients with insomnia. The correlation with data from polysomnography is reasonable for parameters like total sleep period (TSP) with r = 0,95-0,97 in healthy controls and r = 0,77-0,91 in patients. However for parameters, which inform about sleep fragmentation like wake after sleep onset (WASO) the correlation is not satisfieing with r = 0,87 in healthy controls and r = 0,49-0,63 in patients with fragmented sleep. The question is therefore, if actigraphs are really more useful in the record of sleep in patients with insomnia and fragmented sleep than sleep calenders.