Severe Acute Kidney Injury and Double Tubulopathy Due to Dual Toxicity Caused by Combination Antiretroviral Therapy.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Iris extramedullary hematopoiesis in choroidal melanoma

PURPOSE: Extramedullary hematopoiesis (EMH) usually occurs in patients with loss of bone marrow hematopoietic function, and in a vast majority of cases, it involves the liver, the spleen, or the lymph nodes. We report EMH in the iris of patients enucleated for choroidal melanoma (CM). METHODS: We report a series of three patients with CM, two treated with primary enucleation and one with secondary enucleation. RESULTS: Histopathology revealed EMH in the iris of all patients. CONCLUSION: EMH of the iris can be associated with CM in the absence of any hematological or systemic disorders. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first report of this abnormal histopathological finding

Exploring the ecologies of campylobacter and eimeria infections in UK sheep

Several gastrointestinal parasites of sheep have veterinary and zoonotic importance, includingcoccidia belonging to the genus Eimeria and proteobacteria belonging to the genusCampylobacter. In the UK, both Eimeria and Campylobacter are both frequently isolated fromsheep faeces, and studies have shown that infections or co-infections by 10 or more Eimeriaspecies may occur. Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli are the most frequently encountered sheepassociatedCampylobacter species. Despite their potential veterinary and public healthimportance, little work has been reported to date exploring the ecologies of thesemicroorganisms. This project addressed this shortfall by completing cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys ofEimeria and Campylobacter infections in sheep flocks in southern Cumbria. In total almost1000 ovine faecal samples were collected on 27 visits to three farms in the region. Infectionswere diagnosed, and infecting species of both genera delineated, using well-establishedmethods. These results were collated with information about the timing of sample collectionand the age of sheep, and climate data. Significant seasonal trends in the epidemiology ofEimeria and Campylobacter infections were observed. Furthermore, the intensity of Eimeriainfections was also found to be significantly correlated with season, but, in addition with sheepage, rainfall prior to sample collection and, interestingly, to Campylobacter co-infection. Another strand of the study was to assess the role of wildlife as reservoirs for sheep-associatedcampylobacters. A survey of red and roe deer living in the vicinity of the three farms studiedfailed to implicate either species in this role, suggesting they do not contribute to the naturalpersistence of these bacteria in Cumbrian sheep populations. Finally, in an attempt to develop new molecular methods for the delineation of sheep-associatedEimeria species, next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to try and attribute 18S rDNAsequences to Eimeria species present in multi-Eimeria species co-infections. In initial studies,18S rDNA libraries derived from mock communities of four chicken-associated Eimeriaspecies were analysed to assess how accurately NGS data matched the relative abundance ofeach Eimeria species, determined using traditional oocyst counting methods. Unfortunately, nosuggestion of a correlation was apparent. Overall the project clarified the epidemiology of two genera of significant sheep-associatedpathogens and was able to identify some important ecological determinants of thisepidemiology

Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasmosis in Pregnant Women Attending the University Teaching Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon

Purpose: The study was carried out to investigate the epidemiology and associated toxoplasmosis predisposing risk factors in Cameroon. Methods: The survey took place at the Yaounde University Teaching Hospital from May to June 2008. Serum samples were collected from 110 pregnant women attending the ante natal clinic using aseptic techniques after obtaining informed consent. The samples were analysed using toxo-lgG immunocomb and toxo-IgM “capture” ELISA. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information on predisposing risk factors for toxoplamosis from each patient. Data was analysed on Epi-Info using confidence intervals and chi-square statistic test. Results: The average age of the women was 27.9+5.8years and the mean gestational age was 4.1+0.2months. The overall IgG seroprevalence was 65.5% {95% CI: 53.7-71.7%} and that of IgG and IgM co-infection was 2.7%. The seroprevalence was 75% in the first trimester, 60.6% in the second trimester and 50% in the third trimester. No statistically significant relationships were established between anti-toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies and abortion history, meat consumption, potable water sources, cat ownership and age. Conclusion: The prevalence of IgG antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii is high and the first trimester in pregnancy carries the highest risk. All pregnant women should be screened for toxoplasmosis and educated on predisposing risk factors during antenatal visits.Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii, Pregnancy, IgG, IgM, Prevalenc

RRS Discovery Cruise 223, 28 Sep-19 Nov 1996. VIVALDI '96

RRS Discovery Cruise 22, VIVALDI '96, was a contribution to the UK WOCE Community Research Programme. The pattern of SeaSoar sections was designed to enable the upper ocean circulation in the Subpolar gyre of the North Atlantic to be mapped and in particular the course of the North Atlantic and Irminger Currents within the region to be determined. The sparse deep CTD survey was required to complement the upper ocean survey and provide estimates of total mass transport and an 'oceanographic opinion poll' of water mass properties, including CFCs. The cruise commenced by repeating the well-established Rockall Trough CTD Section from Barra Head to Rockall Island. This was then extended north to Lousy Bank from where a CTD section measured before by Saunders across the Iceland Basin was repeated. From then onwards the cruise consisted principally of SeaSoar/ADCP sections interspersed with deep CTD casts (see track plot, Fig.1). These were placed on the 'Vivaldi Grid' (round 3° of latitude and multiples of 300km west of 20°W) where possible, though the complex topography was taken into account. East of Greenland a more intense CTD section of stations (12995-13001) was made along 60°N to cut the East Greenland Current. In addition, 7 profiling floats were deployed in the Irminger Basin

The Radius of Metric Subregularity

There is a basic paradigm, called here the radius of well-posedness, which quantifies the "distance" from a given well-posed problem to the set of ill-posed problems of the same kind. In variational analysis, well-posedness is often understood as a regularity property, which is usually employed to measure the effect of perturbations and approximations of a problem on its solutions. In this paper we focus on evaluating the radius of the property of metric subregularity which, in contrast to its siblings, metric regularity, strong regularity and strong subregularity, exhibits a more complicated behavior under various perturbations. We consider three kinds of perturbations: by Lipschitz continuous functions, by semismooth functions, and by smooth functions, obtaining different expressions/bounds for the radius of subregularity, which involve generalized derivatives of set-valued mappings. We also obtain different expressions when using either Frobenius or Euclidean norm to measure the radius. As an application, we evaluate the radius of subregularity of a general constraint system. Examples illustrate the theoretical findings.Comment: 20 page

BILIARY HAPTOGLOBIN, A POTENT PROMOTER OF CHOLESTEROL CRYSTALLIZATION AT PHYSIOLOGICAL CONCENTRATIONS

Background/Aims: Several proteins present in human bile have been reported to promote cholesterol crystallization and thus are potentially important in the formation of cholesterol crystals as the initial stage in gallstone pathogenesis. To be physiologically relevant, such proteins must either be present in high concentration in bile or have a potent promoting activity. The current study explored several of the more abundant but unexamined biliary proteins based upon their also having sufficiently high serum concentrations that antibodies were available for both their isolation and quantitation. Methods: Protein purification was accomplished by immunoaffinity chromatography of bile followed by delipidation. Con A affinity chromatography of bile was used to obtain the bound fraction, a portion of which was delipidated. Crystallization-promoting activity of both the purified proteins and Con A-bound glycoprotein fractions (CABG) was measured by a photometric crystal growth assay. A competitive antibody-capture ELISA assay was developed to measure concentrations of alpha(1)-antitrypsin, transferrin, and haptoglobin in native bile. Results: At their relevant physiological concentrations, biliary haptoglobin (15 mu g/ml) had a crystallization-promoting activity twice that of the biliary IgM (75 mu g/ml) used as a reference standard (P < 0.05). Biliary transferrin (20 mu g/ml) had only modest promoting activity (P < 0.05). Biliary alpha(1)-antitrypsin (50 mu g/ml), by contrast, showed no promoting activity. Delipidation of the CABG fraction decreased its promoting activity by 75%. Biliary haptoglobin accounts for about 30% of delipidated total CABG-promoting activity. Conclusions: Biliary haptoglobin at its physiological concentration has a highly potent crystallization-promoting activity and thus becomes a candidate for major attention in understanding gallstone pathogenesis. Biliary lipids associated with CABG account for a major portion of the cholesterol-crystallization-promoting activity of this fraction