118 research outputs found

    The drought antidote for the north-west, or the utilisation of the artesian resources of New South Wales

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    Prevalencia de glomerulopatías en el paciente mayor de 65 años: correlación clínica e histológica en centro de referencia nacional, período 2009-2013

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    Objetivo. Determinar las características clínicas y demográficas, la frecuencia y la presentación clínica de las glomerulopatías en el paciente mayor de 65 años. Material y métodos. Estudio de tipo transversal-descriptivo, que incluye la revisión de los datos clínicos e informes anatomopatológicos de 1 338 pacientes biopsiados en hospitales de Lima y otras principales regiones de Perú, se seleccionaron 47 pacientes mayores de 65 años en el del período enero de 2009 a diciembre de 2013. Resultados. La distribución por sexos fue femenino 18 (38 %) y masculino 29 (62 %). Las principales características de la población fueron hipertensión (23 %), edema (74 %), síndrome nefrótico (49 %), hematuria (48 %) y falla renal (21%). La proteinuria promedio fue de 4,2 g/L en 24 h por 1,73 m2 SC ± 3,2 y la creatinina, 1,7 mg/dL ± 0,8. Las glomerulopatías (primarias representaron 90 % delos resultados. Los diagnósticos histopatológicos fueron glomerulonefritis (GN) primarias: glomeruloesclerosis focal y segmentaria (GEFS) 13 (52%), glomerulonefritis membranosa (GNM) 7 (15%) y amiloidosis 4 (9%). GN secundarias: nefritis lúpica y las GN membranoproliferativas (GNMP) 4%, la GEN diabética y las vasculitis fueron hallazgos poco frecuentes. Conclusiones. La glomeruloesclerosis focal y segmentaria fue la más frecuente en mayores de 65 años, más común en varones que en mujeres y las presentaciones clínicas predominantes fueron el edema y el síndrome nefrótico

    Nyabing-Kukerin area land resources survey

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    This report presents the results from soil and landform mapping at a scale of 1:500,000 in the Kukerin, Lake Grace and Nyabing areas of Western Australia. This land resource information has been collected to help improve the decisions made by planners, researchers and land managers. The information can be used at the regional scale, catchment scale and farm level. By improving knowledge of our land resources, more sustainable land uses can be developed within the region. The soil-landscape map of the area covers approximately 515,000 hectares and is included on the accompanying interactive CD-ROM. The map extends from Lake Grace in the north-east through Nyabing to Gnowangerup in the south-west. It includes the towns of Kukerin and Ongerup. The western portion of the survey area falls within the Blackwood River catchment and the eastern portion within the Avon catchment. In the southern portion of the survey area, the Pallinup River drains to the south coast of Western Australia. The Nyabing-Kukerin survey area occurs in the Lake Grace, Narrogin and Katanning advisory districts of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia. Twelve soil-landscape systems have been identified and are represented on the soil-landscape map. Most of these systems have been divided further into subsystems. Descriptions of the main soils, landforms, geology land use and native vegetation of each system are provided on the accompanying CD-ROM. The proportions of main soils and land units occurring within each subsystem are also presented. More than eighty soils are identified in this report with detailed descriptions available on the accompanying CD-ROM. These descriptions include a representative soil profile with chemical and physical analyses where available. The main land management characteristics and the native vegetation are also listed for each soil. The report discusses the soil properties and land degradation hazards associated with each main soil. This gives a broad overview of the capability of the soils. More comprehensive ratings of land qualities, as well as specific land capability assessments and maps are included on the accompanying CD-ROM. Information on land use history, geology and physiography, climate, native vegetation and previous soil surveys are included in the report. These sections provide additional background material about the land resources within the survey area

    Diversity of picornaviruses in rural Bolivia

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    Fil: Nix, W Allan. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Khetsuriani, Nino. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Peñaranda, Silvia. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Maher, Kaija. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Venczel, Linda. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Cselkó, Zsuzsa. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Freire, Maria Cecilia. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas; Argentina.Fil: Cisterna, Daniel. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas; Argentina.Fil: Lema, Cristina L. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas; Argentina.Fil: Rosales, Patricia. Ministry of Health and Sports; Bolivia.Fil: Rodríguez, Jacqueline R. Pediatric Hospital San Antonio de Los Sauces; Bolivia.Fil: Rodríguez, Wilma. Ministry of Health and Sports; Bolivia.Fil: Halkyer, Percy. Pan-American Health Organization; Bolivia.Fil: Ronveaux, Olivier. Pan-American Health Organization; Bolivia.Fil: Pallansch, Mark A. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.Fil: Oberste, M Steven. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Estados Unidos.The family Picornaviridae is a large and diverse group of viruses that infect humans and animals. Picornaviruses are among the most common infections of humans and cause a wide spectrum of acute human disease. This study began as an investigation of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in a small area of eastern Bolivia, where surveillance had identified a persistently high AFP rate in children. Stools were collected and diagnostic studies ruled out poliovirus. We tested stool specimens from 51 AFP cases and 34 healthy household or community contacts collected during 2002-2003 using real-time and semi-nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays for enterovirus, parechovirus, cardiovirus, kobuvirus, salivirus and cosavirus. Anecdotal reports suggested a temporal association with neurological disease in domestic pigs, so six porcine stools were also collected and tested with the same set of assays, with the addition of an assay for porcine teschovirus. A total of 126 picornaviruses were detected in 73 of 85 human individuals, consisting of 53 different picornavirus types encompassing five genera (all except Kobuvirus). All six porcine stools contained porcine and/or human picornaviruses. No single virus, or combination of viruses, specifically correlated with AFP; however, the study revealed a surprising complexity of enteric picornaviruses in a single community

    In vivo Expansion of Naïve CD4+CD25high FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Colorectal Carcinoma after IL-2 Administration

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    Regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are increased in context of malignancies and their expansion can be correlated with higher disease burden and decreased survival. Initially, interleukin 2 (IL-2) has been used as T-cell growth factor in clinical vaccination trials. In murine models, however, a role of IL-2 in development, differentiation, homeostasis, and function of Treg cells was established. In IL-2 treated cancer patients a further Treg-cell expansion was described, yet, the mechanism of expansion is still elusive. Here we report that functional Treg cells of a naïve phenotype - as determined by CCR7 and CD45RA expression - are significantly expanded in colorectal cancer patients. Treatment of 15 UICC stage IV colorectal cancer patients with IL-2 in a phase I/II peptide vaccination trial further enlarges the already increased naïve Treg-cell pool. Higher frequencies of T-cell receptor excision circles in naïve Treg cells indicate IL-2 dependent thymic generation of naïve Treg cells as a mechanism leading to increased frequencies of Treg cells post IL-2 treatment in cancer patients. This finding could be confirmed in naïve murine Treg cells after IL-2 administration. These results point to a more complex regulation of Treg cells in context of IL-2 administration. Future strategies therefore might aim at combining IL-2 therapy with novel strategies to circumvent expansion and differentiation of naïve Treg cells

    Control of hyperglycaemia in paediatric intensive care (CHiP): study protocol.

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    BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that tight blood glucose (BG) control improves outcomes in critically ill adults. Children show similar hyperglycaemic responses to surgery or critical illness. However it is not known whether tight control will benefit children given maturational differences and different disease spectrum. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is an randomised open trial with two parallel groups to assess whether, for children undergoing intensive care in the UK aged <or= 16 years who are ventilated, have an arterial line in-situ and are receiving vasoactive support following injury, major surgery or in association with critical illness in whom it is anticipated such treatment will be required to continue for at least 12 hours, tight control will increase the numbers of days alive and free of mechanical ventilation at 30 days, and lead to improvement in a range of complications associated with intensive care treatment and be cost effective. Children in the tight control group will receive insulin by intravenous infusion titrated to maintain BG between 4 and 7.0 mmol/l. Children in the control group will be treated according to a standard current approach to BG management. Children will be followed up to determine vital status and healthcare resources usage between discharge and 12 months post-randomisation. Information regarding overall health status, global neurological outcome, attention and behavioural status will be sought from a subgroup with traumatic brain injury (TBI). A difference of 2 days in the number of ventilator-free days within the first 30 days post-randomisation is considered clinically important. Conservatively assuming a standard deviation of a week across both trial arms, a type I error of 1% (2-sided test), and allowing for non-compliance, a total sample size of 1000 patients would have 90% power to detect this difference. To detect effect differences between cardiac and non-cardiac patients, a target sample size of 1500 is required. An economic evaluation will assess whether the costs of achieving tight BG control are justified by subsequent reductions in hospitalisation costs. DISCUSSION: The relevance of tight glycaemic control in this population needs to be assessed formally before being accepted into standard practice

    Factors influencing success of clinical genome sequencing across a broad spectrum of disorders

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    To assess factors influencing the success of whole-genome sequencing for mainstream clinical diagnosis, we sequenced 217 individuals from 156 independent cases or families across a broad spectrum of disorders in whom previous screening had identified no pathogenic variants. We quantified the number of candidate variants identified using different strategies for variant calling, filtering, annotation and prioritization. We found that jointly calling variants across samples, filtering against both local and external databases, deploying multiple annotation tools and using familial transmission above biological plausibility contributed to accuracy. Overall, we identified disease-causing variants in 21% of cases, with the proportion increasing to 34% (23/68) for mendelian disorders and 57% (8/14) in family trios. We also discovered 32 potentially clinically actionable variants in 18 genes unrelated to the referral disorder, although only 4 were ultimately considered reportable. Our results demonstrate the value of genome sequencing for routine clinical diagnosis but also highlight many outstanding challenges

    Factors influencing success of clinical genome sequencing across a broad spectrum of disorders

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    To assess factors influencing the success of whole-genome sequencing for mainstream clinical diagnosis, we sequenced 217 individuals from 156 independent cases or families across a broad spectrum of disorders in whom previous screening had identified no pathogenic variants. We quantified the number of candidate variants identified using different strategies for variant calling, filtering, annotation and prioritization. We found that jointly calling variants across samples, filtering against both local and external databases, deploying multiple annotation tools and using familial transmission above biological plausibility contributed to accuracy. Overall, we identified disease-causing variants in 21% of cases, with the proportion increasing to 34% (23/68) for mendelian disorders and 57% (8/14) in family trios. We also discovered 32 potentially clinically actionable variants in 18 genes unrelated to the referral disorder, although only 4 were ultimately considered reportable. Our results demonstrate the value of genome sequencing for routine clinical diagnosis but also highlight many outstanding challenges

    Distinct clinical and immunological profiles of patients with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in sub-Saharan Africa

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    Although the COVID-19 pandemic has left no country untouched there has been limited research to understand clinical and immunological responses in African populations. Here we characterise patients hospitalised with suspected (PCR-negative/IgG-positive) or confirmed (PCR-positive) COVID-19, and healthy community controls (PCR-negative/IgG-negative). PCR-positive COVID-19 participants were more likely to receive dexamethasone and a beta-lactam antibiotic, and survive to hospital discharge than PCR-negative/IgG-positive and PCR-negative/IgG-negative participants. PCR-negative/IgG-positive participants exhibited a nasal and systemic cytokine signature analogous to PCR-positive COVID-19 participants, predominated by chemokines and neutrophils and distinct from PCR-negative/IgG-negative participants. PCR-negative/IgG-positive participants had increased propensity for Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae colonisation. PCR-negative/IgG-positive individuals with high COVID-19 clinical suspicion had inflammatory profiles analogous to PCR-confirmed disease and potentially represent a target population for COVID-19 treatment strategies
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