Antiviral therapy in neonatal cholestatic cytomegalovirus hepatitis

BACKGROUND: Neonatal hepatitis refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders, caused by many factors including cytomegalovirus infection, revealing similar morphologic changes in the liver of an infant less than 3 months of age. Approximately 40% of cholestasis in infants is due to neonatal hepatitis. It may cause latent or acute cholestatic or chronic hepatitis, including cirrhosis in immunocompetant infant. METHODS: Twelve infants diagnosed with neonatal cytomegalovirus hepatitis in the last one year were included in the study. Group 1 consisted of seven babies treated with ganciclovir for 21 days. Group 2 included five cases who did not receive antiviral treatment. Physical examination, biochemical, serologic and virologic tests were done for both groups at the time of diagnosis and in the third month. RESULTS: Initial levels of total bilirubin, aminotransferases, gamma glutamyl transpeptidase, and alkaline phosphatase revealed a significant decrease after the treatment in Group 1 (p < 0.05) when compared with Group 2. This study revealed that ganciclovir treatment is a safe and effective in cases with cholestatic hepatitis. Similarly, all the patients in the treatment group had evidence of improvement serologically and virologically, while the comparison group did not reveal any significant change(p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The clinical spectrum of perinatal infection varies from an asymptomatic infection or a mild disease to a severe systemic involvement, including central nervous system. The treatment in the early period of infection improved serologic markers and cholestatic parameters significantly. Further studies will lead us to clarify the efficacy of ganciclovir treatment in the early period of cytomegalovirus hepatitis, and the preventive role of anti-viral therapy on progressive liver disease due to cholestasis and hepatitis in neonatal cytomegalovirus infection

A Study of Bullying Against Nursing Students

Background: Many institutions have conducted research on the subject of bullying. The literature includes many studies of the effects of widespread bullying among primary and secondary school students. Bullying against hospital nurses and also bullying against university students are well-known and frequently discussed research topics. Yet, the exposure of nursing students to bullying has not been sufficiently explored, and few studies have focused on the issue of bullying against nursing students

A Study of Bullying Against Nursing Students

Background: Many institutions have conducted research on the subject of bullying. The literature includes many studies of the effects of widespread bullying among primary and secondary school students. Bullying against hospital nurses and also bullying against university students are well-known and frequently discussed research topics. Yet, the exposure of nursing students to bullying has not been sufficiently explored, and few studies have focused on the issue of bullying against nursing students

Effects of hospital stay on nutritional anthropometric data in Turkish children

We evaluated the effects of hospital stay on nutritional anthropometric data in children of various age groups and investigated the effects of admission undernutrition on nutritional anthropometric data in children who were hospitalized in our university hospital in Turkey. The adverse effect of hospitalization on nutritional status was shown to be most obvious on the 2-6-year age group with undernourished children. We also found reduced anthropometric parameters in all patients with mild malnutrition at admission (p<0.05). A significant number of pediatric patients in Turkey are at nutritional risk at the time of hospital admission (31.8 per cent). The well-nourished children do not carry nutritional risk due to hospitalization for other medical reasons. Since undernutrition has an adverse effect on morbidity and mortality, careful nutritional evaluation of children on admission is essential. Special attention should be given to patients who had mild malnutrition on admission since this population of patients seem to be at higher risk of adverse effect of hospitalization

Effect of glutamine supplemented nutrition via different routes on mortality and morbidity for critically ill patients

Objective: We aimed to compare the effectiveness of enteral, parenteral and combined enteral-parenteral glutamine supplementations in nutrition of the critical care patients.Material and Method: This is a single-center, prospective, randomized clinical trial. During the 5-day study period, all patients received standard enteral nutrition product and were divided into three groups, including parenteral glutamine (Group I), enteral glutamine (Group II) and enteral+parenteral glutamine (Group III) supplementations. Blood biochemistry, rates of infections, length of stay in intensive care unit and duration of mechanical ventilation were evaluated.Results: Sixty patients were included in this study. There was no statistically significant difference for biochemical values between the different feeding groups. Frequency of infections were ranged as Group II>Group III>Group I and mortality as Group II=III>Group I. Length of stay in intensive care unit and duration of mechanical ventilation were significantly longer in Group II than the others.Conclusion: Although mortality was not significantly different between groups, parenteral glutamine administration causes less stay of intensive care unit and mechanical ventilation days. Further studies are needed with larger randomized controlled groups

Antioxidant response of a novel Streptomyces sp M3004 isolated from legume rhizosphere to H2O2 and paraquat

This paper aims to investigate the effect of H2O2 and paraquat on the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). and membrane lipid peroxidation (LPO) levels in newly isolated Streptomyces sp. M3004. SOD activities of Streptomyces sp. M3004, grown in 10 mM and 30 mM H2O2, were significantly lower than the control cultures. On the other hand, as an antioxidant enzyme, CAT activity in both H2O2 treatment conditions increased significantly compared with the control. These activity values in 10 mM and 30 mM H2O2 treatment on the 48th hour of incubation were 3.8- and 6.6-fold higher than the control, respectively. SOD activity decreased significantly with respect to paraquat concentration, which was added at the start of the incubation. CAT activities increased significantly in 1.0 mM and 3.0 mM paraquat treatments compared to control. As an indicative marker of membrane damage, LPO levels of the novel isolate Streptomyces sp. M3004 treated with H2O2 and paraquat stress conditions were significantly higher than the control. Nevertheless, compared with the 30 mM H2O2 in both treatment conditions, LPO levels in 10 mM H2O2 were significantly higher. The decreases in SOD activities in paraquat and H2O2 treatment conditions resulted in the increases in the LPO levels although it increases in CAT activities. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Renal effects of long-term leptin infusion and preventive role of losartan treatment in rats

Background: Leptin has direct and indirect effects on renal pathophysiological characteristics. In the present study, the effects of long-term leptin infusion on the renal hemodynamics, renal excretory functions, and the expression of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels, and preventive effects of the angiotensin II type I receptor antagonist, losartan, on these renal changes were evaluated

Renal tubular dysgenesis with atypical histology and in-utero exposure to naproxen sodium

Renal tubular dysgenesis (RTD), a rare, lethal, autosomal recessive disorder, is characterised by short and poorly differentiated proximal convoluted tubules associated with oligohydramnios, Potter sequence and neonatal death from respiratory failure. We report an unusual case of neonatal anuria owing to RTD with normally formed lungs, in-utero exposure to naproxen sodium and atypical histology in that the glomeruli were not as crowded as usually seen in RTD. When there is anuria in an infant following birth in the context of a normal renal ultrasound and an absence of objective evidence of perinatal hypoxia, RTD should be considered