Jul 1st, 2022 - Background: Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous environmental organisms that have been increasingly associated with human disease, commonly involving the lung. Post menopausal Caucasian women seem particularly predisposed to the development of peripheral nodules and dilated airways (bronchiectasis) associated with these organisms. These women have distinguishing body characteristic...

Jul 1st, 2022 - We propose to characterize the etiology and natural history of rare inborn errors of metabolism and other genetic disorders, both known and yet-to-be discovered. In so doing, we will expand our knowledge about these disorders and provide access to patients of interest for research, teaching, and clinical experience. Individual patients seen under this protocol have prompted the establishment of...

Jul 1st, 2022 - This protocol results from a funded 2005 Bench-to-Bedside Award and explores the genetic basis of disease severity in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) and the evaluation of three methods to measure disease progression of dermal neurofibromas. NF1 is a common multisystem genetic disorder associated with the development of benign and malignant tumors, primarily of the nervous system. NF1 is 100% pe...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Biosynthesis of proteins is essential for growth and continued maintenance of the entire neuron including axons, dendrites, and synaptic terminals, and it is clearly one of the important biochemical processes underlying adaptive changes in the nervous system. Studies in experimental animals with the quantitative autoradiographic L-[1-(14)C]leucine method have demonstrated a number of the physio...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Background: - Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) can mediate the regression of bulky metastatic melanoma when administered along with highdose aldesleukin (IL-2) following a non-myeloablative lymphodepleting preparative regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide and fludarabine. - Pembrolizumab, a monoclonal antibody that binds to PD-1 and blocks the P...

Jul 1st, 2022 - An association between Gaucher disease and parkinsonism has been demonstrated by the concurrence of parkinsonian manifestations in patients with Gaucher disease and an increased incidence of glucocerebrosidase (GBA) mutations in subjects with parkinsonism of various ethnicities. Furthermore, there is a significant number of obligate and confirmed Gaucher carriers with parkinsonian manifestation...

Jul 1st, 2022 - This is a screening protocol for healthy volunteers to participate in research studies conducted by Laboratory of Malaria Immunology and Vaccinology (LMIV). Malaria-related morbidity and mortality have a major economic impact in endemic regions and present a substantial health risk to non-immune travelers and people living in endemic areas. To stem the worldwide impact of this devastating disea...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Objective This protocol is being performed to 1) study the natural history and disease pathogenesis in patients with tumor related epilepsy, 2) collect prospective data on seizure outcomes following standard surgical treatment of brain tumors with associated seizures2, 3) follow the clinical course of patients after surgical resection of brain tumors with associated seizures, such as outcomes i...

Jul 1st, 2022 - This is a natural history study that will examine craniofacial anomalies that affect the normal development of the facial skeleton, including birth defects and dentofacial developmental abnormalities that express themselves with the growth of the individual. Craniofacial anomalies may be rare and present at birth, such as hemifacial microsomia (1 in every 7500 live births), or common, such as d...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Williams syndrome (WS) is a multisystem developmental disorder caused by deletion of 26-28 genes, including the elastin gene, located on chromosome 7q11.23. Cardiovascular disease in WS, including obstructive vascular disease and hypertension, and relatively mild skin changes are caused by the elastin gene deletion. Even though all WS subjects are missing one copy of this gene, the expression o...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Many of the complications of sickle cell disease, such as stroke, kidney damage, skin ulceration,pulmonary hypertension, and cardiac hypertrophy are prevented, delayed or reduced by inheritance of one of more deletions of the alpha globin genes. Our long-term research goal is to understand how deletions of alpha globin protect against the vascular complications of sickle cell disease. Deletions...

Jul 1st, 2022 - The Division of Intramural Population Health Research (DIPHR) will conduct a research study entitled: "Fetal Body Composition and Volumes Study" to catalog and perform 2 Dimensional (2D) and 3 Dimensional (3D) measurement of the obstetrical ultrasound images in the existing bank of singleton and twin gestations collected from the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies. The research study aims to augment th...

Jul 1st, 2022 - More than ever before, people are eating more calories from food than what they are burning off through exercise and other activities, and this imbalance is causing the rising rates of obesity and diabetes in the US and throughout the world. The different types of body fat are central players in this process. The white fat stores excess calories coming from food, while brown fat - also known as...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Previous with methylene blue suggested that oral administration may be superior to conventional spray catheters. The main advantages claimed were better staining due to longer exposure to the dye, more uniform staining due to normal position of the intestines (during conventional chromocolonoscopy, patients are lying on one side), and a quicker and more comfortable procedure for the patients an...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Research and theory concur in suggesting that certain maternal activities have both immediate and protracted consequences for children's cognitive development in the first years of life. Two conceptually distinct categories of caretaker-child interactions can be identified: social and didactic. These encompass much of the everyday behavior of infants' caretakers. There are data linking both of ...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Title: Electrical Impedance Myography: Natural History Studies in Neuromuscular Disorders and Healthy Volunteers Study Description: This is a natural history study examining the utility of electrical impedance myography (EIM) device in the evaluation of neuromuscular disorders. This is a novel device so the initial step was to establish reproducibility of the data and expected normative values ...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Popular weight loss strategies often prescribe targeted reduction of dietary carbohydrate or fat. Recent clinical trials in obese subjects have found that low-carbohydrate diets result in greater weight loss compared with low-fat diets on a time scale of months when diet adherence was likely the highest. One hypothesis regarding the mechanism of improved weight loss with low carbohydrate diets ...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Objective The goals of this pilot study are: To assess the degree to which subacute changes in clinical, electrophysiological, and imaging measures can robustly predict retinal neuronal loss 12 months after acute optic neuritis. To construct a composite score that integrates these subacute changes, can itself robustly predict retinal neuronal loss 12 months after acute optic neuritis, can be va...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Background: Despite being the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, there is only limited knowledge of tumor heterogeneity in lung cancer. There is also limited knowledge of tumor heterogeneity of other less common thoracic malignancies, such as thymic epithelial tumors and mesothelioma. The extent and causes of intra-tumor and inter-metastatic heterogeneity in thoracic malignancies ...

Jul 1st, 2022 - Between 80 and 100 allogeneic stem cell transplants (allo-HSCT) are performed every year at the NIH to treat a variety of malignant and nonmalignant conditions. The current transplant protocols at the NIH focus on research regarding the response of the underlying disease, the development of graft versus host disease (GVHD) as well as the feasibility and safety of a variety of transplant strateg...