Ultrazvučni pregled promjena vimena uzrokovanih strojnom mužnjom mliječnih krava križanki između holštajnsko-frizijske i sahival pasmine

The study was conducted to observe the internal post-milking teat tissue changes and to evaluate recovery to pre-milking conditions, using ultrasonography. Left-sided teats of Holstein Friesian × Sahiwal crossbred dairy cows (n = 20) were scanned six times: before milking, immediately after milking, and at 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours after milking. Absolute and relative changes of teat canal length (TCL), teat diameter (TD), teat wall thickness (TWT) and teat cistern diameter (TCD) were measured. Machine milking significantly (P<0.001) affected all the measured teat parameters. There was a lengthening of the teat canal (19 - 25%), widening of the TD (19 - 20%), thickening of the teat wall (26 - 36%) and narrowing of TCD (51 - 52%). The time taken for the teats to return to their pre-milking state was significantly affected by teat position. The TWT, TCL and TD were recovered at 3 to 4 hours in the left front teats. In left hind teats, only TWT was recovered at 4 hours of milking. The deviations were highest immediately after milking for TD and TCD, and at 1 h after milking for TCL and TWT. We concluded that the time period of 4 hours is not sufficient for the complete recovery of the teats to the pre-milking state in Holstein Friesian × Sahiwal crossbred dairy cows.Ovo je istraživanje provedeno kako bi se ultrazvukom uočile promjene u tkivu sisa nakon mužnje i procijenio njihov oporavak te vraćanje u stanje prije mužnje. Lijeve sise mliječnih krava križanki između holštajnsko-frizijske i sahival pasmine (n = 20) šest su puta ultrazvučno promatrane: prije mužnje, odmah nakon mužnje te 1, 2, 3 i 4 sata nakon mužnje. Mjerene su apsolutne i relativne promjene dužine sisnog kanala (TCL), promjer vimena (TD), debljina stijenke sisnog kanala (TWT) i promjer sisne cisterne (TCD). Strojna mužnja znakovito je (P<0,0001) utjecala na sve mjerene pokazatelje. Uočeno je produženje sisnog kanala (19 - 25 %), povećanje promjera vimena (19 - 20 %), zadebljanje stijenke vimena (26 - 36 %) i suženje sisne cisterne (51 - 52 %). Na vrijeme potrebno da se sise vrate u stanje prije mužnje znakovito je utjecao njihov položaj. Tako su se vrijednosti TWT-a, TCL-a i TD-a vratile u prvotno stanje 3 - 4 sata kod sisa smještenih na prednjoj lijevoj strani vimena. U sisama smještenim na stražnjoj lijevoj strani vimena samo se TWT vratio u prvotno stanje 4 sata nakon mužnje. Odstupanja su bila najveća odmah nakon mužnje, i to kod vrijednosti TD-a i TCD-a te jedan sat nakon mužnje u slučaju TCL-a i TWT-a. Zaključeno je da je u mliječnih krava križanki između holštajnsko- frizijske i sahival pasmine vrijeme od četiri sata nedovoljno za potpuno vraćanje sisa u stanje prije mužnje

molekularna epidemiologija bakterije Staphylococcus aureus izolirane iz mlijeka krava s mastitisom

The present study was aimed to understand the molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus (54 isolates), isolated from 422 milk samples obtained from 108 subclinical mastitis affected cows (CMT positive ≥1+ in at least one quarter). The molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus was studied using coagulase (coa) gene polymorphism, 16S-23S ribosomal spascer (RS-PCR) polymorphism and Staphylococcal protein A (Spa) typing. Staphylococcus aureus produced 7 coagulase genotypes and 8 RS genotypes respectively. Coagulase genotype GTIII (730 bp) was the most prevalent (35 strains) followed by GTV (900 bp, 7 strains) and GTIV (800 bp, 4 strains), whereas RS genotypes GTA accounted for the highest number of strains (31 strains), followed by GTB (11strains), GTH (4 strains) and GTE (3 strains). Coagulase genotype CTIII (730 bp) showed the highest diversity, as isolates within it produced 5 RS genotypes, the majority of them belonging to the RS genotype GTA (29 out of 31 strains). Forty out of 54 Staphylococcus aureus samples isolated in this study were correctly typed by spa typing, and were assigned to 21 known spa types, and one new novel spa type t18462. The study revealed high diversity within Staphylococcus aureus strains, consisting of 7 coagulase genotypes, 8 RS genotypes and 22 spa types.Istraživanje je provedeno kako bi se razumjela molekularna epidemiologija bakterije Staphylococcus aureus. Ukupno 54 izolata iz 422 uzorka mlijeka dobivena su od 108 krava sa supkliničkim mastitisom (CMT pozitivni ≥ 1+ u barem jednoj četvrtini vimena). Molekularna epidemiologija S. aureus analizirana je upotrebom polimorfizma koagulaza-gena (coa), polimorfizma 16S-23S ribosomske regije razdvajanja (RS-PCR) i tipiziranjem stafilokoknog proteina A (Spas). Bakterija S. aureus proizvela je 7 genotipova koagulaza i 8 RS genotipova. Koagulaza genotip GTIII (730 bp) bio je najčešći (35 sojeva), zatim GTV (900 bp, 7 sojeva) i GTIV (800 bp, 4 soja), dok je kod RS genotipova najveći broj sojeva sadržavao GTA (31 soj), zatim GTB (11 sojeva), GTH (4 soja) i GTE (3 soja). Koagulaza genotip CTIII (730 bp) pokazao je najveću raznolikost jer su izolati unutar njega proizveli 5 RS genotipova, a većina njih pripadala je RS genotipu GTA (29 od 31 soja). Četrdeset od 54 uzorka bakterije S. aureus izolirana u ovom istraživanju bilo je ispravno tipizirano spas tipiziranjem, i pripisano 21 poznatom spas tipu te jednom novom spas tipu, t18462. Istraživanje je pokazalo veliku raznolikost sojeva bakterije S. aureus s obzirom na postojanje 7 koagulaza genotipova, 8 RS genotipova i 22 spas tipa

A prospective cross-sectional study on prescribing pattern of antibiotics on patients suffering from ENT infections in tertiary care hospital, Pokhara, Nepal

Background: This survey was designed to assess and evaluate the prescribing pattern of antibiotics used in patients suffering from ENT (Eye, Nose, and Throat) infections in ENT outpatient departments (OPD) at Manipal Teaching Hospital (MTH), Phulbari, Pokhara, Nepal.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in out-patients of ENT department at MTH for 6 month in which a total of 216 prescriptions were observed randomly and data filled patient profile forms were collected and analyzed.Results: Out of 216 patients, 126(58.33%) were male and 90 (41.67%) were female. Patients of age group 21-30 were maximum (29.16%) followed by age group of 11-20 (22.22%). Only 6.7% of drugs were prescribed from their generic names. Data analysis revealed that about 72.24%, 24.53% and 3.23% of prescription contained one, two and three antibiotic drugs respectively. All together 970 drugs were prescribed in 216 prescriptions out of which 251 (25.87%) were antibiotics drugs. This suggested that the average no. of antibiotics per prescription was 1.16. Among prescribed antibiotics, Amoxicillin (7.56%) of penicillin group, Azithromycin (8.36%) of macrolides, Cefuroxime (9.56%) of 2nd generation cephalosporin followed by Cefpodoxime (32.27%) of 3rd generation cephalosporin and Ofloxacin (6.37%) of quinolones group were frequently prescribed. From analysis, we found that other concomitant medications were also prescribed such analgesics, antihistamines, PPI (Proton Pump Inhibitors) and vitamins, minerals and dietary enzymes. The prescribed antibiotics accounted for large percentage of oral dosage forms (89.90%) followed parental injection dosage forms 5.05%.Conclusions: Prescribing more than one antibiotics was commonly encountered indicating the occurrence of polypharmacy which were based on empirical therapy without any culture and sensitivity test report. Therefore, local hospital culture sensitivity database for ENT infections has to be developed and prescribing with generic name from existing essential drug list or formulary should be encouraged for rational drug therapy

Povezanost hromosti s ocjenom tjelesne kondicije, zdravljem vimena i kvalitetom mlijeka u krava križanki mliječnih pasmina

Three hundred and thirty-seven (337) crossbred dairy cows, at different stages of lactation and parity, from thirteen randomly selected dairy farms, were examined for locomotion score based on a five-point numerical scoring scale. Mild, moderate and severely lame cows were grouped together into the lame group and normal cows with locomotion score ‘0’ into the healthy non-lame group. Body condition score (BCS) in all the animals was also evaluated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 to 5. Cows having cow hock rear leg view (RLV) were assigned score ‘1’, and score ‘0’ for those with normal hocks. A quarter foremilk (QFM) and cow composite (CC) sample were collected from each cow maintaining aseptic conditions. QFM was used to determine the quarter health status of the cows, and CC for estimation of somatic cell count (SCC) and milk composition, in terms of fat, SNF, protein and lactose. It was concluded that lame cows had significantly (P<0.01) more milk SCC and poor quarter health status as compared to healthy cows. RLV increased with increasing lameness, although it did not affect milk SCC and composition. Likewise, milk composition was not affected by lameness. Lame cows had poor BCS, indicating a negative correlation with lameness.U istraživanje je uključeno 337 krava križanki za mlijeko, u različitim stadijima laktacije i s različitim paritetom. Krave su potjecale iz 13 slučajno odabranih farmi za proizvodnju mlijeka. Na temelju ljestvice do 5 bodova, kod krava je provedena procjena lokomocijske sposobnosti. Krave s blagom, umjerenom i jakom hromošću svrstane su u zajedničku skupinu hromih krava, a krave s ocjenom lokomocijske sposobnosti „0” u skupinu zdravih, nehromih krava. Ocjena tjelesne kondicije (BCS) u svih životinja također je procijenjena ljestvicom u rasponu od 1 do 5 bodova. Kravama s X-stavom stražnjih nogu (RLV) dodijeljena je ocjena „1“, a kravama s normalnim stavom stražnjih nogu dodijeljena je ocjena „0“. U aseptičkim uvjetima od svake je krave prikupljen uzorak iz pojedinačnih četvrti vimena (QFM) i zajednički, miješani uzorak mlijeka. QFM je korišten za određivanje zdravstvenog statusa krava, a CC za procjenu broja somatskih stanica (SCC) i sastava mlijeka s obzirom na mast, SNF, bjelančevine i laktozu. Zaključeno je da su hrome krave imale signifikantno (P<0,01) veći broj somatskih stanica SCC i lošiji zdravstveni status četvrti vimena u usporedbi sa zdravim kravama. RLV se povećao s povećanjem hromosti, iako nije utjecao na SCC i sastav mlijeka. Slično tomu, sastav mlijeka nije bio pod utjecajem hromosti. Hrome su krave imale slab BCS, što upućuje na negativnu povezanost s hromošću

Generation, annotation, and analysis of ESTs from midgut tissue of adult female Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malaria is a tropical disease caused by protozoan parasite, <it>Plasmodium</it>, which is transmitted to humans by various species of female anopheline mosquitoes. <it>Anopheles stephensi </it>is one such major malaria vector in urban parts of the Indian subcontinent. Unlike <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>, an African malaria vector, transcriptome of <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue is less explored. We have therefore carried out generation, annotation, and analysis of expressed sequence tags from sugar-fed and <it>Plasmodium yoelii </it>infected blood-fed (post 24 h) adult female <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We obtained 7061 and 8306 ESTs from the sugar-fed and <it>P. yoelii </it>infected mosquito midgut tissue libraries, respectively. ESTs from the combined dataset formed 1319 contigs and 2627 singlets, totaling to 3946 unique transcripts. Putative functions were assigned to 1615 (40.9%) transcripts using BLASTX against UniProtKB database. Amongst unannotated transcripts, we identified 1513 putative novel transcripts and 818 potential untranslated regions (UTRs). Statistical comparison of annotated and unannotated ESTs from the two libraries identified 119 differentially regulated genes. Out of 3946 unique transcripts, only 1387 transcripts were mapped on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome. These also included 189 novel transcripts, which were mapped to the unannotated regions of the genome. The EST data is available as ESTDB at <url>http://mycompdb.bioinfo-portal.cdac.in/cgi-bin/est/index.cgi</url>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>3946 unique transcripts were successfully identified from the adult female <it>A. stephensi </it>midgut tissue. These data can be used for microarray development for better understanding of vector-parasite relationship and to study differences or similarities with other malaria vectors. Mapping of putative novel transcripts from <it>A. stephensi </it>on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome proved fruitful in identification and annotation of several genes. Failure of some novel transcripts to map on the <it>A. gambiae </it>genome indicates existence of substantial genomic dissimilarities between these two potent malaria vectors.</p

Procalcitonin Is Not a Reliable Biomarker of Bacterial Coinfection in People With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Undergoing Microbiological Investigation at the Time of Hospital Admission

Abstract Admission procalcitonin measurements and microbiology results were available for 1040 hospitalized adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (from 48 902 included in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium World Health Organization Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study). Although procalcitonin was higher in bacterial coinfection, this was neither clinically significant (median [IQR], 0.33 [0.11–1.70] ng/mL vs 0.24 [0.10–0.90] ng/mL) nor diagnostically useful (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.56 [95% confidence interval, .51–.60]).</jats:p

Implementation of corticosteroids in treating COVID-19 in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK:prospective observational cohort study

BACKGROUND: Dexamethasone was the first intervention proven to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 being treated in hospital. We aimed to evaluate the adoption of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 in the UK after the RECOVERY trial publication on June 16, 2020, and to identify discrepancies in care. METHODS: We did an audit of clinical implementation of corticosteroids in a prospective, observational, cohort study in 237 UK acute care hospitals between March 16, 2020, and April 14, 2021, restricted to patients aged 18 years or older with proven or high likelihood of COVID-19, who received supplementary oxygen. The primary outcome was administration of dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone. This study is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN66726260. FINDINGS: Between June 17, 2020, and April 14, 2021, 47 795 (75·2%) of 63 525 of patients on supplementary oxygen received corticosteroids, higher among patients requiring critical care than in those who received ward care (11 185 [86·6%] of 12 909 vs 36 415 [72·4%] of 50 278). Patients 50 years or older were significantly less likely to receive corticosteroids than those younger than 50 years (adjusted odds ratio 0·79 [95% CI 0·70–0·89], p=0·0001, for 70–79 years; 0·52 [0·46–0·58], p80 years), independent of patient demographics and illness severity. 84 (54·2%) of 155 pregnant women received corticosteroids. Rates of corticosteroid administration increased from 27·5% in the week before June 16, 2020, to 75–80% in January, 2021. INTERPRETATION: Implementation of corticosteroids into clinical practice in the UK for patients with COVID-19 has been successful, but not universal. Patients older than 70 years, independent of illness severity, chronic neurological disease, and dementia, were less likely to receive corticosteroids than those who were younger, as were pregnant women. This could reflect appropriate clinical decision making, but the possibility of inequitable access to life-saving care should be considered. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research and UK Medical Research Council

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Delayed mucosal anti-viral responses despite robust peripheral inflammation in fatal COVID-19

Background While inflammatory and immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in peripheral blood are extensively described, responses at the upper respiratory mucosal site of initial infection are relatively poorly defined. We sought to identify mucosal cytokine/chemokine signatures that distinguished COVID-19 severity categories, and relate these to disease progression and peripheral inflammation. Methods We measured 35 cytokines and chemokines in nasal samples from 274 patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Analysis considered the timing of sampling during disease, as either the early (0-5 days post-symptom onset) or late (6-20 days post-symptom onset). Results Patients that survived severe COVID-19 showed IFN-dominated mucosal immune responses (IFN-γ, CXCL10 and CXCL13) early in infection. These early mucosal responses were absent in patients that would progress to fatal disease despite equivalent SARS-CoV-2 viral load. Mucosal inflammation in later disease was dominated by IL-2, IL-10, IFN-γ, and IL-12p70, which scaled with severity but did not differentiate patients who would survive or succumb to disease. Cytokines and chemokines in the mucosa showed distinctions from responses evident in the peripheral blood, particularly during fatal disease. Conclusions Defective early mucosal anti-viral responses anticipate fatal COVID-19 but are not associated with viral load. Early mucosal immune responses may define the trajectory of severe COVID-19