Short Communication Effects of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) supplementation on performance and egg characteristics of old breeder hens

A study was conducted to determine the effect of supplementing the diet of breeder hens with a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) premix, containing 509 g fatty acid salts/kg of which 285 g were calcium butyrate, on their eggshell characteristics and the hatching percentage of the eggs. One thousand six hundred 66-week old White Bovans laying breeder hens were used in this experiment. They were housed in eight identical pens, each containing 200 birds, and four pens were used per treatment. The SCFA premix was included at 1000 mg/kg in the treatment diet, and fed for a period of nine weeks. Responses were compared with an unsupplemented treatment. Supplementation started when the hens were 66 weeks old. From day 75 eggs were collected for the next seven weeks and the occurrence of cracked, dirty and misshapen eggs was recorded, and the hatching percentage of the eggs was determined. Eggshell strength was lower in eggs from the control (1.76 ± 0.05) than from the treatment group (2.07 ± 0.03). The percentage of eggs produced by the control group (68.6 ± 0.08) was significantly lower than that by the supplemented group (71.5 ± 0.15). Percentage of dirty, cracked and misshapen eggs, and the hatchability percentage of the control group (1.15 ± 0.03, 3.44 ± 0.05, 6.27 ± 0.03 and 88.93 ± 0.06, respectively) were also significantly lower than in the group receiving SCFA (0.47 ± 0.03, 2.21 ± 0.03, 3.81 ± 0.03 and 93.36 ± 0.05, respectively). It was concluded that dietary supplementation of SCFA to layer breeder hens from 66 weeks of age onwards improved eggshell strength, reduced the percentage of dirty, cracked and misshapen eggs and increased the hatching percentage of the eggs. The positive responses were suggested to be largely due to the butyrate in the SCFA. Keywords: Butyrate; SCFA; eggshell quality; hatching characteristics South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 37 (3) 2007: pp.158-16

Paediatric Oncology Patients' and their Mothers' Enteral Nutrition Experiences: A Qualitative Study

WOS: 00038481880133

A prospective study of peripheral lymphadenopathy in childhood

WOS: A1997WZ36700015PubMed ID: 914318

Nutritional Screening and Intervention in a Turkish Pediatric Oncology Clinic

WOS: 00044519500416

Skin toxicity after administration of low-dose cytarabine

WOS: 000082710400019PubMed ID: 1049155

Segmentation of high angular resolution diffusion MRI using sparse riemannian manifold clustering

We address the problem of segmenting high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data into multiple regions (or fiber tracts) with distinct diffusion properties. We use the orientation distribution function (ODF) to model diffusion and cast the ODF segmentation problem as a clustering problem in the space of ODFs. Our approach integrates tools from sparse representation theory and Riemannian geometry into a graph theoretic segmentation framework. By exploiting the Riemannian properties of the space of ODFs, we learn a sparse representation for each ODF and infer the segmentation by applying spectral clustering to a similarity matrix built from these representations. In cases where regions with similar (resp. distinct) diffusion properties belong to different (resp. same) fiber tracts, we obtain the segmentation by incorporating spatial and user-specified pairwise relationships into the formulation. Experiments on synthetic data evaluate the sensitivity of our method to image noise and to the concentration parameters, and show its superior performance compared to alternative methods when analyzing complex fiber configurations. Experiments on phantom and real data demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method in segmenting simulated fibers and white matter fiber tracts of clinical importance

The role of Tc-99(m)-sestamibi scintigraphy in the staging and prediction of the therapeutic response of stage IV neuroblastoma: Comparison with I-131-MIBG and Tc-99(m)-MDP scintigraphy

WOS: 000083598500003PubMed ID: 10572908In this study, we investigated prospectively the diagnostic role of Tc-99(m)-MIBI for staging and for predicting the therapeutic response of stage nr neuroblastoma compared wth I-131-MIBG imaging and Tc-99(m)- MDP bone scintigraphy. Nine patients (4 girls and 5 boys aged 1-7 years) with suspected or proven stage IV neuroblastoma were studied with Tc-99(m)-MIBI at initial diagnosis and after 12-18 months of multidrug therapy. After the injection of 80 MBq.kg(-1) Tc-99(m)-MIBI, early (10 min) and delayed (1 h) images were obtained. The data were correlated with I-131-MIBG scans, bone scintigraphy, ultrasound, computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging, and bone marrow biopsy. Eight of nine primary tumours and 41 metastatic lesions were detected by I-131-MIBG scintigraphy. None of the primary lesions demonstrated significant Tc-99(m)-MIBI accumulation. Sestamibi was positive in 16 of 41 MIBG-avid metastatic lesions. After six courses of multidrug chemotherapy, 30 I-131-MIBG-avid neuroblastoma metastases that were Tc-99(m)-MIBI-negative at the time of diagnosis still did not show significant sestamibi accumulation. Follow-up demonstrated that all lesions that were Tc-99(m)-MIBI-avid at the time of diagnosis remained negative. Of these 16 lesions, seven were positive for I-131-MIBG accumulation with no reduction in size, and nine showed resolution after therapy. New metastatic foci detected by MIBG scintigraphy did not accumulate Tc-99(m)-MIBI. Clinical evaluation of patients with no Tc-99(m)-MIBI uptake in primary and secondary sites of neuroblastoma confirmed that they were resistant to multidrug chemotherapy. AII Tc-99(m)-MIBI-positive lesions, irrespective of clinical outcome, demonstrated significant clearance of tracer on the delayed images. We conclude that Tc-99(m)-MIBI has no role in the staging of neuroblastoma. Sestamibi is a well-documented transport substrate for P-glycoprotein-related multidrug resistance and serial imaging may provide prognostic information on the therapeutic value of chemotherapy. ((C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)

Rare tumors of the lung in children

WOS: 000176841500007PubMed ID: 12186365The authors report rare and different types of lung tumors in 4 children. The first case is an 8-year-old boy with mucoepidermoid carcinoma, the second case is a 9-year-old girl with neuroendocrine carcinoma, the third is a 14-year-old girl with fetal lung adenocarcinoma (FLAC), and the last is a 16-year-old girl with bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. Among these tumors, FLAC has not been reported in children so far. Each tumor type displayed a different prognosis in the follow-up period. In the differential diagnosis of primary lung tumors, carcinoid tumor, bronchogenic carcinoma, and pulmonary blastoma are frequently encountered, but these rare tumor types should be borne in mind