Native T1-mapping detects the location, extent and patterns of acute myocarditis without the need for gadolinium contrast agents

Background Acute myocarditis can be diagnosed on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) using multiple techniques, including late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging, which requires contrast administration. Native T1-mapping is significantly more sensitive than LGE and conventional T2-weighted (T2W) imaging in detecting myocarditis. The aims of this study were to demonstrate how to display the non-ischemic patterns of injury and to quantify myocardial involvement in acute myocarditis without the need for contrast agents, using topographic T1-maps and incremental T1 thresholds. Methods We studied 60 patients with suspected acute myocarditis (median 3 days from presentation) and 50 controls using CMR (1.5 T), including: (1) dark-blood T2W imaging; >(2) native T1-mapping (ShMOLLI); (3) LGE. Analysis included: (1) global myocardial T2 signal intensity (SI) ratio compared to skeletal muscle; (2) myocardial T1 times; (3) areas of injury by T2W, T1-mapping and LGE. Results Compared to controls, patients had more edema (global myocardial T2 SI ratio 1.71 ± 0.27 vs.1.56 ± 0.15), higher mean myocardial T1 (1011 ± 64 ms vs. 946 ± 23 ms) and more areas of injury as detected by T2W (median 5% vs. 0%), T1 (median 32% vs. 0.7%) and LGE (median 11% vs. 0%); all p  990 ms (sensitivity 90%, specificity 88%) detected significantly larger areas of involvement than T2W and LGE imaging in patients, and additional areas of injury when T2W and LGE were negative. T1-mapping significantly improved the diagnostic confidence in an additional 30% of cases when at least one of the conventional methods (T2W, LGE) failed to identify any areas of abnormality. Using incremental thresholds, T1-mapping can display the non-ischemic patterns of injury typical of myocarditis. Conclusion Native T1-mapping can display the typical non-ischemic patterns in acute myocarditis, similar to LGE imaging but without the need for contrast agents. In addition, T1-mapping offers significant incremental diagnostic value, detecting additional areas of myocardial involvement beyond T2W and LGE imaging and identified extra cases when these conventional methods failed to identify abnormalities. In the future, it may be possible to perform gadolinium-free CMR using cine and T1-mapping for tissue characterization and may be particularly useful for patients in whom gadolinium contrast is contraindicated

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Not AvailableThe study determined the combined effect of dietary l- carnitine (non- essential organic nutrient) and ractopamine (feed additive) on growth performance and nu-tritional composition of Labeo calbasu. To ascertain this, a 60-day feeding trial was carried out under a controlled condition where two hundred and twenty-five healthy L. calbasu fingerlings (avg. wt. 3.47 ± 0.1 g) were divided into four treatments group and one control group in triplicate. Therefore, the respective combination of l- carnitine and ractopamine diet was fed to L. calbasu fingerlings as C: control or basal feed without l- carnitine and ractopamine; T1:1 g kg−1l- carnitine and 10 mg kg−1 rac-topamine; T2: 2 g kg−1l- carnitine and 20 mg kg−1 ractopamine; T3: 3 g kg−1l- carnitine and 30 mg kg−1 ractopamine and T4: 4 g kg−1l- carnitine and 40 mg kg−1 ractopamine, respectively. Upon completion of the 60-day feeding experiment, eight fish were randomly collected from each tank and subjected to a series of laboratory analyses. The study determines that T2 group fish significantly (p< .05) improved the WGP (244.66± 20.59%), SGR (0.89 ± 0.04), PER (2.20 ± 0.14) and increased crude protein content in fish muscle. In addition, many essential amino acids were recorded signifi-cantly high (p< .05) in the fish fed with diet T2 compared with others. Hence, dietary supplementation of l- carnitine and ractopamine at 2 g kg−1 and 20 mg kg−1 in combi-nation is beneficial for growth and nutritional composition of L. calbasu.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableTrifolium alexandrinum is commonly called as Berseem. It has been used to prepare berseem leaf meal (BLM) and leaf protein concentrate (BLPC). Proximate analysis revealed that the crude protein level in BLM and BLPC were 23.98% and 41.67% respectively. Level of anti-nutritional factor especially saponin content in BLM and BLPC were found to be 0.91% and 0.71% respectively. The alkaloids were higher in BLPC (5.55%) and BLM (3.46%). It has been recorded that saponin content reduced to 0.40% in BLM on 24 hours of water soaking. Evidence from the present study suggests that BLM and BLPC can be used as a good protein source in aquafeedNot Availabl

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Not AvailableThe Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus of the family claridae, commonly known as „magur‟ has high commercial importance in India. Aeromonas veronii has been reported as an important bacterial pathogen for aquatic animals and humans. Several reports have demonstrated the pathogenic effect of other Aeromonas species on aquatic animal; however in farmed C. batrachus no definitive data are available about A. veronii infection. In the present study, a virulent A. veronii strain BLB-01was isolated from the infected C. batrachus collected from freshwater fish farm Balabhadrapuram, East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India and its identification was confirmed by 16S rRNA amplification and sequencing (Gen Bank accession number.MF370515). In addition two genes encoding aerolysin (aerA), haemolysin (hlyA) were found present in the isolate which further confirmed its potential virulence. Histologically, the infected muscle tissue showed erythrocyte and leukocyte infiltration due to bacterial infection. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility test was also conducted by using effective antibiotic drugs to guide the treatment of the disease.Not Availabl

Uranium, radium and tritium groundwater monitoring at INFN-Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy

Uranium groundwater anomalies, which were observed in cataclastic rocks crossing the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory before the L\u2019Aquila earthquake (April 6th, 2009), have been studied versus radium and tritium contents. The radionuclide analysis supports the role of endogenic fluid dynamics for uranium content in groundwater rather than percolation processes, due to meteoric events occurring above the water table of the Gran Sasso aquifer. The uranium anomalies represent a key geochemical signal of a progressive increase of deep fluids fluxes at middle-lower crustal levels associated with the geodynamics of the earthquake. Moreover, the uranium represents a more precise strain-meter than radon as its presence can be modulated during the preparation phase of the earthquake, and only successively released by micro- fracturing during the main shock and aftershocks