COVID Blindness: Delayed Diagnosis of Aseptic Meningitis in the COVID-19 Era

Diagnostic errors are a serious problem in healthcare. The diagnostic process is highly susceptible to cognitive bias and the current COVID-19 pandemic may cause normally accurate healthcare workers to make incorrect decisions. We report a case of aseptic meningitis that required five healthcare visits before it was correctly diagnosed. This case highlights the risk of anchoring bias and the importance of carefully assessing diagnostic processes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Hemin Treatment Abrogates Monocrotaline-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension

Treatment of rats with monocrotaline (MCT), a pyrrolizidine alkaloid plant toxin, is known to cause pulmonary hypertension (PH), and it has been used as a useful experimental model of PH. Recent findings suggested that pulmonary inflammation may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of MCT-induced PH. We also demonstrated that, following MCT administration to rats, there was a significant and sustained increase in the pulmonary expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which is known to be induced by various oxidative stresses, including inflammation and free heme, and is thought to be essential in the protection against oxidative tissue injuries. In this study, we administered hemin (ferriprotoporphyrin chloride, 30 mol/kg b.w., subcutaneously), a potent inducer of HO-1, every 3 days to rats following subcutaneous administration of MCT (60 mg/kg) and examined its effect on MCT-induced PH and pulmonary inflammation. MCT administration caused pulmonary arterial wall thickening with marked elevation of right ventricular pressure, in association with prominent pulmonary inflammation as revealed by the increase in gene expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and the number of infiltrated neutrophils in the lung. In contrast, hemin treatment of MCT-administered animals, which led to a further increase in pulmonary HO-1 mRNA expression, significantly ameliorated MCT-induced PH as well as tissue inflammation. These findings suggest that hemin treatment ameliorates MCT-induced PH possibly mediated through induction of pulmonary HO-1 which leads to the attenuation of pulmonary inflammation

Addressing the Challenge of Legitimate International Comparisons:Lesson Structure in the USA, Germany and Japan

212

Phosphorus deficiency affects the early development of wheat plants

The effect of phosphorus nutrition on the development of wheat plants, was studied. Phosphorus deficiency increased the duration of the phyllochron when the concentration in shoots was less than 0.8 %. Phosphorus concentration in shoots appeared to be a good indicator of the effect of plant phosphorus status on wheat development