176 research outputs found
Prompt improvement of a pressure ulcer by the administration of high viscosity semi-solid nutrition via a nasogastric tube in a man with tuberculosis: a case report
INTRODUCTION: Semi-solid nutrition with high viscosity has the advantage of reducing gastroesophageal reflux and diarrhea and shortens the duration of administration compared with liquid nutrition. This is the first report describing the administration of semi-solid nutrition with high viscosity via a nasogastric tube, which achieved a remarkable improvement in the patient's nutritional state. CASE PRESENTATION: A 67-year-old man (mongoloid race, Japanese) with tuberculosis, a pressure ulcer and malnutrition was admitted to our hospital. He also had right hemiplegia, dysphagia and aphasia as sequelae of a cerebral hemorrhage. Before his admission, he had been treated at another hospital with 600 kcal/day of liquid nutrition via a nasogastric tube, which was insufficient and induced severe malnutrition. After he was admitted to our hospital, we increased the quantity of his liquid nutrition without success because of complications, specifically diarrhea and gastroesophageal reflux. As it was difficult to confirm whether or not he would accept gastrostomy feeding, we administered semi-solid nutrition with high viscosity (20,000 mPa x s) via a large-bore nasogastric tube (18 French). Soon after he was started on semi-solid nutrition, his pressure ulcer and malnutrition improved without diarrhea or complications accompanying the large-bore nasogastric tube. CONCLUSION: When patients have problems with liquid nutrition, such as diarrhea or gastroesophageal reflux, semi-solid nutrition via a nasogastric tube is a useful method of achieving improvements in nutritional state in a short period of time
Diverse Bone Morphogenetic Protein Expression Profiles and Smad Pathway Activation in Different Phenotypes of Experimental Canine Mammary Tumors
BACKGROUND:BMPs are currently receiving attention for their role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Currently, most BMP expression studies are performed on carcinomas, and not much is known about the situation in sarcomas. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We have investigated the BMP expression profiles and Smad activation in clones from different spontaneous canine mammary tumors. Spindle cell tumor and osteosarcoma clones expressed high levels of BMPs, in particular BMP-2, -4 and -6. Clones from a scirrhous carcinoma expressed much lower BMP levels. The various clones formed different tumor types in nude mice but only clones that expressed high levels of BMP-6 gave bone formation. Phosphorylated Smad-1/5, located in the nucleus, was detected in tumors derived from clones expressing high levels of BMPs, indicating an active BMP signaling pathway and BMP-2 stimulation of mammary tumor cell clones in vitro resulted in activation of the Smad-1/5 pathway. In contrast BMP-2 stimulation did not induce phosphorylation of the non-Smad pathway p38 MAPK. Interestingly, an increased level of the BMP-antagonist chordin-like 1 was detected after BMP stimulation of non-bone forming clones. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:We conclude that the specific BMP expression repertoire differs substantially between different types of mammary tumors and that BMP-6 expression most probably has a biological role in bone formation of canine mammary tumors
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