Lupus myocarditis. Case report

Myocarditis is one of the many possible forms of cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus. Its clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic patients with self-limited disease to fulminant heart failure that can lead to death. In most cases treatment consists of supportive care only. The authors present the case of a patient with lupus myocarditis

Impact of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on left atrial volume and function in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea assessed by real-time three-dimensional echocardiography

Background: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) has been reported as a predictor of left ventricle (LV) diastolic dysfunction and left atrium (LA) remodelling. the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of OSA treatment with a continuous positive airway pressure device (CPAP) on the LA volume and function, as well as on the LV diastolic function.Methods: in total, 56 OSA patients were studied. All patients underwent real-time three-dimensional (RT3DE) and two-dimensional echocardiogram with tissue Doppler evaluation in order to estimate LA volumes, function and LV diastolic performance. A total of 30 patients with an apnoea-hypopnoea index greater than 20 were randomly selected to receive sham CPAP (n = 15) or effective CPAP (n = 15) for 24 weeks. They underwent echo examination on three different occasions: at baseline, after 12 weeks and 24 weeks of CPAP or sham CPAP.Results: in the effective CPAP group we observed the following changes from the baseline to the 24-week echo evaluation: (a) a reduction in the E/E' ratio (10.3 (1.9) to 7.9 (1.3), p = 0.03); (b) an increase in the LA passive emptying fraction (28.8% (11.9%) to 46.8% (9.3%), p = 0.01); and (c) a reduction in the LA active emptying fraction (42.7% (11.5%) to 25.7 (15.7), p<0.01). in the sham group, there were no changes from the baseline to the 24-week echo. We found a positive correlation between 24 week/baseline LA active emptying volume and 24 week/baseline E/E' ratios (r = 0.40, p<0.05) and a negative correlation between 24 week/baseline LA passive emptying volume and 24 week/baseline E/E' ratios (r = 20.53, p<0.05). No significant changes were found on LA total emptying fraction.Conclusion: CPAP improved LV diastolic function and LA passive emptying, but not LA structural variables in OSA patients.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)CEPIDAFIPUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychobiol, Discipline Sleep Biol & Med, BR-05021010 São Paulo, BrazilAlbert Einstein Hosp, São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Discipline Cardiol, BR-05021010 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychobiol, Discipline Sleep Biol & Med, BR-05021010 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Discipline Cardiol, BR-05021010 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Influence of PPCPs on the performance of intermittently operated slow sand filters for household water purification

Removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) from drinking water is usually enhanced by advanced oxidation which is not affordable in low income countries. Slow sand filtration has been found to be capable of removing anti-inflammatory compounds, and its low maintenance costs and easy operation make it an attractive technology for treating drinking water in many parts of the world. In addition, slow sand filters can be used at both large and household scales. The biofilm (i.e. schmutzdecke) developed on the top of the sand and within the upper layers of the sand is acknowledged to be responsible for the water purification. However, it is possible that the PPCPs may affect the schmutzdecke development and microbial community within the filters, and consequently the performance of the filter. This study investigated two household slow sand filters (for water purification) operated intermittently with and without contamination by six PPCPs. Eleven parameters were monitored in the affluent and effluent water, including bacterial species present and schmutzdecke biomass development. Results demonstrated that the household slow sand filter performance was not affected by the 2μgL(-1) of PPCPs in the water. There was no significant difference between filters for total coliforms and E. coli removal, but there was considerable difference between sampling times. Biomass considerably increased with the number of filtrations in both filters and there was no significant difference between filter biomass. However, it was found that more bacterial species were present in the period with no contamination than during the contamination period. Bacillus anthracis and Exiguobacterium sp. showed to be resistant to the effects of the PPCPs. These suggest there are effects of PPCPs on bacterial species within the filter. However, the effect of the PPCPs on biomass was not conclusive in this study and needs to be further investigated

Drought tolerance and antioxidant enzymatic activity in transgenic ?Swingle? citrumelo plants over-accumulating proline.

In this study we investigated the effects of the high endogenous proline level on water relations, gas exchange and antioxidant enzymatic activity in leaves of transgenic ?Swingle? citrumelo rootstocks transformed with the P5CSF129A gene coding for the key-enzyme for proline synthesis, under water deficit. Leaf total water, osmotic and pressure potentials, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rates and xylem sapflowwere evaluated in non-transformed control and transgenic plants during water deficit treatment. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content, catalase (CAT; EC 1.11.1.6), superoxide dismutase (SOD; EC 1.15.1.1) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX; EC 1.11.1.11) activities were quantified in leaves collected based on their total water potential, representing the following conditions: irrigated (w =&#8722;1.3 MPa), moderate stress (w =&#8722;2.3 to &#8722;2.5 MPa), severe stress (w =&#8722;3.8 to &#8722;3.9 MPa) and recovery (24 h after re-irrigation: w =&#8722;1.3 to &#8722;1.9 MPa). Osmotic adjustment was observed in transgenic plants until 11 days after withholding water, while pressure potential in non-transformed controls was close to zero after nine days of water deprivation. This superior maintenance of turgor pressure in leaves of transgenic plants led to higher stomatal conductance, photosynthetic and transpiration rates when compared to non-transgenic plants. Drought caused a significant decrease in APX and SOD activities in control plants, followed by an increase after re-watering. On the other hand, CAT was more active in control than in transgenic plants under irrigated condition and both stress levels. Our results suggest that transgenic plants were able to cope with water deficit better than non-transformed controls since the high endogenous proline level acted not only by mediating osmotic adjustment, but also by contributing to gas exchange parameters and ameliorating deleterious effects of drought-induced oxidative stress

Theory of Mind and social functioning among neuropsychiatric disorders:A transdiagnostic study

Social dysfunction is commonly present in neuropsychiatric disorders of schizophrenia (SZ) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Theory of Mind (ToM) deficits have been linked to social dysfunction in disease-specific studies. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how ToM is related to social functioning across these disorders, and which factors contribute to this relationship. We investigated transdiagnostic associations between ToM and social functioning among SZ/AD patients and healthy controls, and explored to what extent these associations relate to information processing speed or facial emotion recognition capacity. A total of 163 participants were included (SZ: n=56, AD: n=50 and age-matched controls: n=57). Social functioning was assessed with the Social Functioning Scale (SFS) and the De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale (LON). ToM was measured with the Hinting Task. Information processing speed was measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and facial emotion recognition capacity by the facial emotion recognition task (FERT). Case-control deficits in Hinting Task performance were larger in AD (rrb = -0.57) compared to SZ (rrb = -0.35). Poorer Hinting Task performance was transdiagnostically associated with the SFS (βHinting-Task = 1.20, p<0.01) and LON (βHinting-Task = -0.27, p<0.05). DSST, but not FERT, reduced the association between the SFS and Hinting Task performance, however the association remained significant (βHinting-Task = 0.95, p<0.05). DSST and FERT performances did not change the association between LON and Hinting Task performance. Taken together, ToM deficits are transdiagnostically associated with social dysfunction and this is partly related to reduced information processing speed

Histopathological characterization of experimentally induced cutaneous loxoscelism in rabbits inoculated with Loxosceles similis venom

Envenomation by Loxosceles bites is characterized by dermonecrotic and/or systemic features that lead to several clinical signs and symptoms called loxoscelism. Dermonecrotic lesions are preceded by thrombosis of the dermal plexus. Recent studies show that atheromatous plaque is prone to thrombosis due to endothelial cell apoptosis. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of microscopic dermal lesion and endothelial cell apoptosis induced by Loxosceles similis venom in the literature. Thus, the aim of the present study is to describe histological lesions induced by L. similis venom in rabbit skin and to elucidate whether apoptosis of endothelial cells is involved in the pathogenesis of loxoscelism. Forty male rabbits were split into two groups: the control group (intradermally injected with 50 µL of PBS) and the experimental group (intradermally injected with 0.5 µg of L. similis crude venom diluted in 50 µL of PBS). After 2, 4, 6 and 8 hours of injection, skin fragments were collected and processed for paraffin or methacrylate embedding. Sections of 5 µm thick were stained by HE, PAS or submitted to TUNEL reaction. Microscopically, severe edema, diffuse heterophilic inflammatory infiltrate, perivascular heterophilic infiltrate, thrombosis, fibrinoid necrosis of arteriolar wall and cutaneous muscle necrosis were observed. Two hours after venom injection, endothelial cells with apoptosis morphology were evidenced in the dermal plexus. Apoptosis was confirmed by TUNEL reaction. It seems that endothelial cell apoptosis and its consequent desquamation is an important factor that induces thrombosis and culminates in dermonecrosis, which is characteristic of cutaneous loxoscelism

Correlações entre características da qualidade do sêmen e a circunferência escrotal de reprodutores da raça Gir.

Informações relativas a aspectos físicos, como volume (VOL), turbilhonamento (TURB), motilidade (MOT), vigor (VIG) e concentração (CONC), e aspectos morfológicos, como defeitos maiores (DMA) e menores (DME), de 807 coletas de sêmen (CS) de 105 touros da raça Gir selecionados para leite, e suas respectivas medidas de circunferência escrotal (CE), foram utilizadas para estudar os fatores que afetam essas características e suas correlações. Modelos uni e bivariados, que incluíram os efeitos da central de inseminação, do ano e da época da CS ou da medida da CE , da idade à CS ou da medida CE e touro, foram utilizados para avaliar os efeitos destas fontes de variação e as correlações entre as características. Os efeitos da central de inseminação e de touro foram significativos para todas as características. A idade afetou apenas CE, TURB e NEMOV (= VOL x CONC x MOT). As repetibilidades, estimadas pelo modelo univariado, variaram de 0,23, para CONC, a 0,70, para TURB. As correlações fenotípicas estimadas pelos modelos bivariados foram, em geral, no sentido favorável. As correlações de Pearson entre a CE e as demais características variaram de -0,19 a 0,35. As correlações obtidas, em geral no sentido favorável, sugerem que a CE pode ser utilizada como característica de eliminação prévia dos touros que são candidatos à coleta de sêmen

Evaluation of HBV-Like circulation in wild and farm animals from Brazil and Uruguay.

The origin of the hepatitis B virus is a subject of wide deliberation among researchers. As a result, increasing academic interest has focused on the spread of the virus in different animal species. However, the sources of viral infection for many of these animals are unknown since transmission may occur from animal to animal, human to human, animal to human, and human to animal. The aim of this study was to evaluate hepadnavirus circulation in wild and farm animals (including animals raised under wild or free conditions) from different sites in Brazil and Uruguay using serological and molecular tools. A total of 487 domestic wild and farm animals were screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV) serological markers and tested via quantitative and qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect viral DNA. We report evidence of HBsAg (surface antigen of HBV) and total anti-HBc (HBV core antigen) markers as well as low-copy hepadnavirus DNA among domestic and wild animals. According to our results, which were confirmed by partial genome sequencing, as the proximity between humans and animals increases, the potential for pathogen dispersal also increases. A wider knowledge and understanding of reverse zoonoses should be sought for an effective One Health response