Mineral Oil Aspiration Related Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

We describe the development of rheumatoid factor-positive migratory polyarthritis in a 5-year-old male who had been administered bidaily oral mineral oil as a laxative since birth. Minor respiratory symptoms, radiographic and bronchoscopic findings were consistent with chronic lipoid pneumonia. We speculate that immune sensitization to mineral oil promoted the clinical syndrome of juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Cardiothoracic Transplant Recipient Mycoplasma hominis: An Uncommon Infection with Probable Donor Transmission

The role of infection with Mycoplasma hominis following cardiothoracic organ transplantation and its source of transmission have not been well-defined. Here, we identify and describe infection with M. hominis in patients following cardiothoracic organ transplantation after reviewing all cardiothoracic transplantations performed at our center between 1998 and July 2015. We found seven previously unreported cases of M. hominis culture positive infection all of whom presented with pleuritis, surgical site infection, and/or mediastinitis. PCR was used to establish the diagnosis in four cases. In two instances, paired single lung transplant recipients manifested infection, and in one of these pairs, isolates were indistinguishable by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). To investigate the prevalence of M. hominis in the lower respiratory tract, we tested 178 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids collected from immunocompromised subjects for M. hominis by PCR; all were negative. Review of the literature revealed an additional 15 cases of M. hominis in lung transplant recipients, most with similar clinical presentations to our cases. We recommend that M. hominis should be considered in post-cardiothoracic transplant infections presenting with pleuritis, surgical site infection, or mediastinitis. M. hominis PCR may facilitate early diagnosis and prompt therapy. Evaluation for possible donor transmission should be considered

Characterization of excitatory prostanoid receptors in the human umbilical artery in vitro

1. 5-HT and the prostanoid TP receptor agonists, U46619 and I-BOP, constricted the human umbilical artery with pEC(50) values of 7.3±0.2, 6.7±0.1, and 7.3±0.2, respectively. The selective TP receptor antagonist, GR32191 (0.1 μM), shifted the concentration-effect curves to U46619 and I-BOP to the right, but had no effect on the response to 5-HT. 2. The natural prostaglandins, PGF(2α) and PGE(2), caused concentration-dependent contraction with pEC(50) values of 5.2±0.2 and 4.9±0.2, respectively. PGD(2) was a partial agonist with a pEC(50) of 5.24±0.03. GR32191 (0.1 μM) inhibited the responses to all of these compounds suggesting that they produce contraction by acting at TP receptors. 3. Sulprostone failed to elicit contraction in the human umbilical artery at concentrations up to 4.4 μM suggesting the absence of EP(1) and EP(3) receptors. Despite this, 17-phenyltrinor PGE(2) and GR63799 both induced contraction at concentrations above 1 μM, but the effects were sensitive to GR32191 (0.1 μM). 4. Fluprostenol had no effect on the human umbilical artery at concentrations up to 17 μM suggesting the absence of FP receptors. Cloprostenol was ineffective in two tissues, but caused contraction in one tissue at the highest concentration tested (1.7 μM). However, this response was abolished in the presence of GR32191 (0.1 μM). 5. The effects of four TP receptor antagonists were assessed by global non-linear regression analysis. GR32191, SQ29548, SQ30741, and ICI192605 competitively inhibited responses to U46619 with pK(b) values of 8.0±0.1, 7.6±0.1, 7.0±0.2 and 8.1±0.1, respectively. 6. These results suggest that the human umbilical artery functionally expresses TP receptors, but not EP(1), EP(2) or FP receptors