Solitary pancreatic tuberculous abscess mimicking pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma: a case report

BACKGROUND: The incidence of pancreatic tuberculosis is extremely rare, and it frequently misdiagnosed as pancreatic neoplasms. The nonsurgical diagnosis of this entity continues to be a challenge. CASE PRESENTATION: A 33 year old male with six-month history of intermittent right epigastric vague pain and weight lost had found a solitary pancreatic cystic mass and diagnosed as pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma. The chest X-ray film and physical examination revealed no abnormalities. Abdominal ultrasound (US) examination showed an irregular hypoechoic lesion of 6.6 cm × 4.4 cm in the head of pancreas, and color Doppler flow imaging did not demonstrate blood stream in the mass. The attempts to obtain pathological evidence of the lesion by US-guided percutaneous fine needle aspiration failed, an exploratory laparotomy and incisional biopsy revealed a caseous abscess of the head of pancreas without typical changes of tuberculous granuloma, but acid-fast stain was positive. CONCLUSIONS: Pancreatic tuberculosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of focal pancreatic lesions, especially for young people in developing countries

Photoacclimation strategies in northeastern Atlantic seagrasses: Integrating responses across plant organizational levels

Seagrasses live in highly variable light environments and adjust to these variations by expressing acclimatory responses at different plant organizational levels (meadow, shoot, leaf and chloroplast level). Yet, comparative studies, to identify species' strategies, and integration of the relative importance of photoacclimatory adjustments at different levels are still missing. The variation in photoacclimatory responses at the chloroplast and leaf level were studied along individual leaves of Cymodocea nodosa, Zostera marina and Z. noltei, including measurements of variable chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, photoprotective capacities, non-photochemical quenching and D1-protein repair, and assessments of variation in leaf anatomy and chloroplast distribution. Our results show that the slower-growing C. nodosa expressed rather limited physiological and biochemical adjustments in response to light availability, while both species of faster-growing Zostera showed high variability along the leaves. In contrast, the inverse pattern was found for leaf anatomical adjustments in response to light availability, which were more pronounced in C. nodosa. This integrative plant organizational level approach shows that seagrasses differ in their photoacclimatory strategies and that these are linked to the species' life history strategies, information that will be critical for predicting the responses of seagrasses to disturbances and to accordingly develop adequate management strategies.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal [PTDC/MAR-EST/4257/2014

G6PD deficiency in Latin America: systematic review on prevalence and variants

Plasmodium vivax radical cure requires the use of primaquine (PQ), a drug that induces haemolysis in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient (G6PDd) individuals, which further hampers malaria control efforts. The aim of this work was to study the G6PDd prevalence and variants in Latin America (LA) and the Caribbean region. A systematic search of the published literature was undertaken in August 2013. Bibliographies of manuscripts were also searched and additional references were identified. Low prevalence rates of G6PDd were documented in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, but studies from Curaçao, Ecuador, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad, as well as some surveys carried out in areas of Brazil, Colombia and Cuba, have shown a high prevalence (> 10%) of G6PDd. The G6PD A-202A mutation was the variant most broadly distributed across LA and was identified in 81.1% of the deficient individuals surveyed. G6PDd is a frequent phenomenon in LA, although certain Amerindian populations may not be affected, suggesting that PQ could be safely used in these specific populations. Population-wide use of PQ as part of malaria elimination strategies in LA cannot be supported unless a rapid, accurate and field-deployable G6PDd diagnostic test is made available