Prospective Analysis of Factors Influencing the Antibody Response to Hepatitis B Vaccine in Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract Background. Patients on maintenance hemodialysis typically show a suboptimal immune response to hepatitis B (HB) virus vaccination compared to the non-uremic population. The aim or our study was the identification of factors implicated in the vaccine response of our hemodialysis patients. Methods. We studied prospectively 63 hemodialysis patients who were seronegative for HB (37 males, 26 females). Their mean age was 62.2±11.28 years (range 35-80) and hemodialysis. Duration 55.96±50.1 months (range 6-225) fourteen of them (22.2%) were diabetics. Our patients followed a four-dose vaccination schedule (0, 1, 2 and 6 months) with 40 μg of a recombinant DNA HB vaccine. The antibody response was determined 1 month after the fourth dose of vaccination by assessing the titre of antiHBs antibodies (ab). Immune response was defined as sufficient when the antiHBs ab level was ≥ 12 mIU/ml. During the 6-month vaccination period we also monitored monthly and time-averaged Kt/V, residual renal function (RRF), BMI, serum creatinine, albumin, transferrin, ferritin, CRP, iPTH and the dose of erythropoietin and Vitamin D that they received. Results. An optimal immune response was achieved in 34 patients (54%, responders) (antiHBs: 295.95±341.67 mIU/ml), whereas 29 patients (46%, non-responders) showed a suboptimal response (antiHBs: 1.98±2.92 mIU/ml) (p=1.75x10 -5 ). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the antiHBs ab titre and BMI (r=-0.28, p=0.024). A significant difference was also found between the BMI of responders and non-responders as groups (24.8±5.5 vs. 27.2±4.5, p=0.02). Grouping our patients according to the existence of diabetes, age (cut off 60 years), and hemodialysis efficiency (Kt/V≥1.2) we found a statistically significant difference in the antiHBs ab titre between diabetics and non-diabetics (8.43±12.3 vs. 200.2±317.7 mIU/ml, p=0.03), younger and older patients (262±365.09 vs. 84.36±189.1 mIU/ml, p=0.0145) and patients with efficient and inefficient hemodialysis (234.71±337.1 vs. 79.14±200.99 mIU/ml, p=0.032). Treatment with vitamin D analogues, RRF and hypoalbuminemia were not found to be implicated in the immune response of our patients

Nurses attitudes and beliefs to attempted suicide in Southern India

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Mental Health on 20-5-15, available online: https://doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2015.1019051Background: There is growing global interest into the attitudes and clinical management of persons who have attempted suicide. Aims: The principal purpose was to determine senior nursing staff attitudes towards patients who had attempted suicide from a professional and cultural perspective, which might influence care following hospital admission. The focus concerned nursing staff interactions at a psychological level that compete with physical tasks on general hospital wards. Methods: A qualitative methodology was employed with audio-taped interviews utilising four level data coding. This article reports on a group of 15 nursing staff from a large general hospital in Mysore, Southern India. Results: Findings suggested that patient care and treatment is directly influenced by the nurse’s religious beliefs within a general hospital setting with physical duties prioritised over psychological support, which was underdeveloped throughout the participant group. Conclusion: The results allow a series of recommendations for educational and skills initiatives before progressing to patient assessment and treatment projects and cross-cultural comparison studies. In addition, interventions must focus on current resources and context to move the evidence-based suicide prevention forward

Effect of gamma and electron beam irradiation on the physico-chemical and nutritional properties of mushrooms: a review

The short shelf-life of mushrooms is an obstacle to the distribution and marketing of the fresh product. Thus, prolonging postharvest storage, while preserving their quality, would benefit the mushroom industry as well as consumers. There has been extensive research on finding the most appropriate technology for mushrooms preservation. Gamma, electron-beam and UV irradiation have been shown to be potential tools in extending the postharvest shelf-life of fresh mushrooms. Studies evaluating the effects of ionizing radiation are available mainly in cultivated species such as Agaricus bisporus, Lentinus edodes and Pleurotus ostreatus. This review comprises a comprehensive study of the effects of irradiation on physico-chemical parameters (weight, colour, texture and pH), chemical compounds including nutrients (proteins, sugars and vitamins) and non-nutrients (phenolics, flavonoids and flavour compounds), and on biochemical parameters such as enzymatic activity of mushrooms for different species and from different regions of the world.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to the research centers CIMO (PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and REQUIMTE (PEst-C/EQB/ LA0006/2011). A.S. Fernandes and A.L. Antonio thank FCT, POPHQREN and FSE for their Grants (SFRH/BD/76019/2011 and SFRH/ PROTEC/67398/2010, respectively)

Phenolic, polysaccharidic and lipidic fractions of mushrooms from northeast Portugal: chemical compounds with antioxidant properties

Mushrooms do not constitute a significant portion of the human diet, but their consumption continues to increase due to their functional benefits and presence of bioactive compounds. Some of those compounds can be found in the phenolic, polysaccharidic and lipidic fractions of edible and inedible species. Herein, those fractions of five wild mushrooms (Coprinopsis atramentaria, Lactarius bertillonii, Lactarius vellereus, Rhodotus palmatus and Xerocomus chrysenteron) from Northeast Portugal were studied for their chemical composition and antioxidant properties. Protocatechuic, p-hydroxybenzoic, p-coumaric and cinnamic acids were found in the phenolic fraction, ramnose, xylose, fucose, arabinose, fructose, glucose, manose, mannitol, sucrose, maltose and trehalose were quantified in polysaccharidic fraction, linoleic and stearic (only in Lactarius sp.) acids, and β- and γ-tocopherols were the main compounds in the lipidic fraction. C. atramentaria and X. chrysenteron phenolic fractions gave the highest free radical scavenging activity, reducing properties and lipid peroxidation inhibition in brain homogenates, which is in agreement with its highest content in total phenolics. Furthermore, among the polysaccharidic fractions C. atramentaria also gave the highest antioxidant activity, which is accordingly with its highest total polysaccharides content and sugars obtained after hydrolysis.The authors are grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) and COMPETE/QREN/EU (research project PTDC/AGR-ALI/110062/2009) for financial support. L. Barros (BPD/4609/2008) and S.A. Heleno (BD/70304/2010) also thank FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE. The GIP-USAL is financially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme (FUN-C-FOOD, CSD2007-00063), and Junta de Castilla y León (Grupo de Investigación de Excelencia, GR133)

Nutritional value, micronutrient and antioxidant capacity of some green leafy vegetables commonly used by southern coastal people of Bangladesh.

Southern coastal people of Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition due to coastal flooding, deforestation and increased soil salinity. A number of green leafy vegetables are found in the southern coastal belt being traditionally eaten as daily basis by local people. But they are unaware of nutritional and medicinal use of these vegetables. To contribute to their wider utilization, five common vegetables namely Hibiscus sabdariffa, Trianthema portulacastrum, Diplazium esculentum, Heliotropium indicum L. and Hygrophila auriculata were selected for analysis of nutritional proximate, micronutrients and antioxidant potential. Nutritional properties were analyzed in terms of moisture, pH, protein, lipid, ash, fibre, minerals and carbohydrate. Total flavonoid, tannin and antioxidant capacity were evaluated using established protocols. The results demonstrated that collected plants are rich in carbohydrate, fibre, proteins, moisture and ash content but low in lipid content. The mineral elements were high with remarkable amount of Na (19.9-21.5 mg/gm), K (7.9-13.5 mg/gm) and P (1.0-1.8 mg/gm). All the samples were found to have considerable amount of flavonoid (90.6-144.5 mg QE/gm) and tannin content (26.8-57.2 mg GAE/gm). The IC50 value of DPPH and superoxide radical scavenging was the lowest for H. indicum (37.1 and 83.4 μg/ml, respectively) whereas T. portulacastrum possessed high reducing power (IC50 53.7 μg/ml). Among the five investigated species, T. portulacastrum and H. indicum were found to have good nutritional and antioxidant properties, thus can be promoted as a significant source of nutritional and antioxidant food supplements