Long-term outcome of radiological-guided insertion of implanted central venous access port devices (CVAPD) for the delivery of chemotherapy in cancer patients: institutional experience and review of the literature

Central venous access port devices (CVAPD) are necessary for delivery of prolonged infusional chemotherapy or in patients with poor peripheral venous access. Previous studies of Hickman catheters report complication rates in about 45% of patients. Our aim was to assess the early and late complication rate, and duration that the CVAPD remained functional, following insertion by interventional radiologists in patients with solid tumours. A prospective study was undertaken in 110 consecutive patients who had insertion of 111 subclavian CVAPD. The median age of patients was 57 years (range 17–83), 64 were females; 68 patients (61%) had gastrointestinal tumours and 25 (23%) had breast cancer. CVAPD were successfully implanted in all but one patient. There were four (4%) immediate major complications: thrombosis 2 and pneumothorax 2. Nine patients (8%) had bruising or pain. Four devices (4%) became infected. In total, 100 CVAPD (90%) were either removed as planned at the end of treatment (n=23) after a median 203 days, or remained in situ for a median of 237 days (7–1133). Premature removal occurred in eight patients due to infection (n=4), thrombosis (n=3) or faulty device (n=1). Four patients were lost to follow-up. Radiological insertion of CVAPD is safe and convenient with low rates of complications

Characterisation of Sweet potato collusive virus (SPCV) isolates from sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) in Australia

Sweet potato collusive virus (SPCV) is a member of the genus Cavemovirus, family Caulimoviridae, for which only one full-length genome sequence has been reported. SPCV was first detected in Australia in 2007 in two sweet potato accessions using the nitrocellulose membrane ELISA kit developed by the International Potato Centre (CIP). Infected plants were also shown to contain isometric virions of ~ 50 nm, typical of members of the genera Cavemovirus, Caulimovirus, Petuvirus and Soymovirus. We have now sequenced and characterised the complete genomes of the two SPCV isolates (designated SPCV-Aus1 and -Aus2) using a combination of next-generation sequencing and PCR/Sanger sequencing. The sequences of both isolates encode three major ORFs with a genome organisation typical of cavemoviruses. However, isolate SPCV-Aus2 possesses a considerably shorter genome length of 7275 bp compared to SPCV-Aus1 (7712 bp) and the only available full-length sequence from a Portuguese isolate (7723 bp; GenBank accession number NC_015328). Further, ORF 1 of SPCV-Aus2 is considerably shorter than the ORF 1 length of both SPCV-Aus1 and SPCV-Mad1. Phylogenetic and PASC analysis showed that SPCV-Aus1 is closely related to SPCV isolates from North and Central America, whereas SPCV-Aus2 clustered together with isolates from Portugal and Africa