Proteinuria in early detection of human leptospirosis

Background: Leptospirosis is an infectious disease caused by spirochetes bacteria Leptospira spp. and is reported from all over the world. As the clinical signs and symptoms of Leptospirosis often are nonspecific and the disease is early mistaken for other major infectious febrile illness, laboratory test to confirm the clinical diagnosis thus is essential for optimal treatment and patient management.Methods: Serum and urine samples were collected from patients clinically suspected cases of Leptospirosis. Preparations of urine concentrate by precipitation and centrifugation.Results: It was interesting to note that immunoglobulins are present in the urine protein concentrate of patients with Leptospirosis on the day of admission in the hospital, with urine albumin reports either positive or negative. By ELISA test it was noted that antibodies present in urine and serum were of both IgM and IgG class against the Leptospiral antigens from three pathogenic serovars and one non-pathogenicserovars. In the immunospot test which was done and compared with standard ELISA test for serum antibodies using same antigen showed that antibodies present in urine protein concentrate, which was collected on the day of admission when patients come with suspecting symptoms of Leptospirosis.Conclusions: Proteinuria is the most frequent abnormality noted in all patients at some stage of illness. This is the first report on the presence of immunoglobulins in urine samples, which were found to be of IgM and IgG classes. These findings are of significant diagnostic potential as a simple immune-spot test can be done for detecting anti-leptospiral antibodies in urine samples of suspected cases. The present attempt was aimed at developing an immunospot test, a simple and rapid diagnostic test to detect Leptospirosis using urine samples of clinically suspected patients of the infection at the earliest. It was found to be in good correlation with standard ELISA method which is being used to detect serum antibodies in Leptospira infected patients using the same antigen

Higher Order Elastic Constants, Gruneisen Parameters and Lattice Thermal Expansion of Lithium Niobate

The second and third-order elastic constants and pressure derivatives of second- order elastic constants of trigonal LiNbO3 (lithium niobate) have been obtained using the deformation theory. The strain energy density estimated using finite strain elasticity is compared with the strain dependent lattice energy density obtained from the elastic continuum model approximation. The second-order elastic constants and the non-vanishing third-order elastic constants along with the pressure derivatives of trigonal LiNbO3 are obtained in the present work. The second and third-order elastic constants are compared with available experimental values. The second-order elastic constant C11 which corresponds to the elastic stiffness along the basal plane of the crystal is less than C33 which corresponds to the elastic stiffness tensor component along the c-axis of the crystal. The pressure derivatives, dC'ij/dp obtained in the present work, indicate that trigonal LiNbO3 is compressible. The higher order elastic constants are used to find the generalized Gruneisen parameters of the elastic waves propagating in different directions in LiNbO3. The Brugger gammas are evaluated and the low temperature limit of the Gruneisen gamma is obtained. The results are compared with available reported values

Diverse effects of a low dose supplement of lipidated curcumin in healthy middle aged people

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Curcumin extracts of turmeric are proposed to produce health benefits. To date, human intervention studies have focused mainly on people with existing health problems given high doses of poorly absorbed curcumin. The purpose of the current study was to check whether in healthy people, a low dose of a lipidated curcumin extract could alter wellness-related measures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The present study was conducted in healthy middle aged people (40–60 years old) with a low dose of curcumin (80 mg/day) in a lipidated form expected to have good absorption. Subjects were given either curcumin (N = 19) or placebo (N = 19) for 4 wk. Blood and saliva samples were taken before and after the 4 weeks and analyzed for a variety of blood and saliva measures relevant to health promotion.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Curcumin, but not placebo, produced the following statistically significant changes: lowering of plasma triglyceride values, lowering of salivary amylase levels, raising of salivary radical scavenging capacities, raising of plasma catalase activities, lowering of plasma beta amyloid protein concentrations, lowering of plasma sICAM readings, increased plasma myeloperoxidase without increased c-reactive protein levels, increased plasma nitric oxide, and decreased plasma alanine amino transferase activities.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Collectively, these results demonstrate that a low dose of a curcumin-lipid preparation can produce a variety of potentially health promoting effects in healthy middle aged people.</p