Hyperammonemia and systemic inflammatory response syndrome predicts presence of hepatic encephalopathy in dogs with congenital portosystemic shunts

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with liver disease. The pathogenesis of he is incompletely understood although ammonia and inflammatory cytokines have been implicated as key mediators. To facilitate further mechanistic understanding of the pathogenesis of HE, a large number of animal models have been developed which often involve the surgical creation of an anastomosis between the hepatic portal vein and the caudal vena cava. One of the most common congenital abnormalities in dogs is a congenital portosystemic shunt (cpss), which closely mimics these surgical experimental models of HE. Dogs with a cPSS often have clinical signs which mimic clinical signs observed in humans with HE. Our hypothesis is that the pathogenesis of HE in dogs with a cPSS is similar to humans with HE. The aim of the study was to measure a range of clinical, haematological and biochemical parameters, which have been linked to the development of HE in humans, in dogs with a cPSS and a known HE grade. One hundred and twenty dogs with a cPSS were included in the study and multiple regression analysis of clinical, haematological and biochemical variables revealed that plasma ammonia concentrations and systemic inflammatory response syndrome scores predicted the presence of HE. Our findings further support the notion that the pathogenesis of canine and human HE share many similarities and indicate that dogs with cPSS may be an informative spontaneous model of human HE. Further investigations on dogs with cPSS may allow studies on HE to be undertaken without creating surgical models of HE thereby allowing the number of large animals used in animal experimentation to be reduced

Effects of a bank consolidation promotion policy : Evaluating Bank Law in 1927 Japan

This paper investigates the impact of bank consolidations promoted by government policy, using data from pre-war Japan when the Ministry of Finance promoted bank consolidations by dint of the Bank Law of 1927. It is found that policy-promoted consolidation had a positive effect on deposit growth, especially in the period when the financial system was unstable. On the other hand, it had a negative effect on profitability, particularly when there was no dominant bank among the participants or when more than two banks participated in the consolidation. Policy-promoted consolidation in such cases was likely to be accompanied by large organizational cost.Financial History Review. 掲載予定.本文フィルはリンク先を参照のこ

Minimally invasive technique based on ultraslow ultrafiltration to collect and store time profiles of analytes

A device is described to collect and store continuously time profiles of analytes over periods of 24 h suitable to sample freely moving individuals (humans and animals). The device consists of a hollow fiber ultrafiltration probe, a long capillary and a nonmechanical unit (a disposable medical syringe) driven by vacuum to withdraw fluid. The principle is that at low rates (100 nL/min), sample fluid is collected through the ultrafiltration probe into the capillary. A time resolution of less than 5 min over a 24-h collection and storage period was achieved for lactate and glucose. To illustrate an in vivo application, devices were fixed under the wing of freely moving broiler chickens, with subcutaneous or intravenous probe placements. The device can be produced as a disposable, and it may become applied for ex vivo and in vitro monitorin