With improved outcomes associated with radiotherapy (RT), post-irradiation tumors are increasingly seen in long-term cancer survivors. We report a case of a young woman who presented with a three-year history of a vascular lesion on the temple, previously irradiated for a childhood brain tumor. The history of radiation, the clinical appearance, and the biopsy findings of an atypical vascular proliferation in the dermis, were worrisome for a malignant vascular neoplasm and prompted surgical excision. However, further tissue analysis of the excised specimen confirmed a benign atypical vascular lesion (AVL) overlying a banal pilar cyst. Distinguishing post-radiation benign from malignant vascular lesions can be difficult because they share overlapping clinical and histopathologic features. Thus, any vascular lesion that occurs in a previously irradiated field should be excised completely with tumor-free margins and examined histologically.

The possible presentations of cytomegalovirus (CMV) are vast not only in its systemic manifestations, but also in the various cutaneous lesions that may result. Cutaneous cytomegalovirus is rarely reported in the literature because the clinical and pathologic features can be difficult to identify. Its identification, however, is vital as cutaneous human CMV infection can signal systemic disease and an unfavorable prognosis. The objective of this study is to aid in recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of CMV according to dermatological evidence. A complete literature search was performed within PubMed, resulting in the inclusion of 58 patient cases. The most common dermatologic manifestation was perianal or oral ulcers, but the locations and types of lesions noted throughout the review were numerous. Treatment is often simple, yet incorrect diagnoses along with concurrent illnesses can often complicate management. It is imperative for CMV to be detected early in its course to prevent mortality, especially in the immunocompromised. Dermatological presentations are often the first sign of this deadly virus' activity and it is essential that these diagnoses are made more efficient and accurate.

Emerging evidence highlights a critical relationship between gut microbiota and neurocognitive development. Excessive consumption of sugar and other unhealthy dietary factors during early life developmental periods yields changes in the gut microbiome as well as neurocognitive impairments. However, it is unclear whether these two outcomes are functionally connected. Here we explore whether excessive early life consumption of added sugars negatively impacts memory function via the gut microbiome. Rats were given free access to a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) during the adolescent stage of development. Memory function and anxiety-like behavior were assessed during adulthood and gut bacterial and brain transcriptome analyses were conducted. Taxa-specific microbial enrichment experiments examined the functional relationship between sugar-induced microbiome changes and neurocognitive and brain transcriptome outcomes. Chronic early life sugar consumption impaired adult hippocampal-dependent memory function without affecting body weight or anxiety-like behavior. Adolescent SSB consumption during adolescence also altered the gut microbiome, including elevated abundance of two species in the genus Parabacteroides (P. distasonis and P. johnsonii) that were negatively correlated with hippocampal function. Transferred enrichment of these specific bacterial taxa in adolescent rats impaired hippocampal-dependent memory during adulthood. Hippocampus transcriptome analyses revealed that early life sugar consumption altered gene expression in intracellular kinase and synaptic neurotransmitter signaling pathways, whereas Parabacteroides microbial enrichment altered gene expression in pathways associated with metabolic function, neurodegenerative disease, and dopaminergic signaling. Collectively these results identify a role for microbiota "dysbiosis" in mediating the detrimental effects of early life unhealthy dietary factors on hippocampal-dependent memory function.

The two hemispheres of the human brain differ functionally and structurally. Despite over a century of research, the extent to which brain asymmetry is influenced by sex, handedness, age, and genetic factors is still controversial. Here we present the largest ever analysis of subcortical brain asymmetries, in a harmonized multi-site study using meta-analysis methods. Volumetric asymmetry of seven subcortical structures was assessed in 15,847 MRI scans from 52 datasets worldwide. There were sex differences in the asymmetry of the globus pallidus and putamen. Heritability estimates, derived from 1170 subjects belonging to 71 extended pedigrees, revealed that additive genetic factors influenced the asymmetry of these two structures and that of the hippocampus and thalamus. Handedness had no detectable effect on subcortical asymmetries, even in this unprecedented sample size, but the asymmetry of the putamen varied with age. Genetic drivers of asymmetry in the hippocampus, thalamus and basal ganglia may affect variability in human cognition, including susceptibility to psychiatric disorders.