Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) associated peritonitis in a child: a rare case of peritonitis caused by sphingomonous paucimobilis

First identified in 1977, Sphingomonous Paucimobilis has emerged as an opportunistic human pathogen. It is primarily known to cause a range of mostly nosocomial, non-life-threatening infections that typically are easily treated by antibiotic therapy. Sources of its isolation linked to clinical disease include blood, spinal fluid and leg ulcers. It has also been reported as a rare cause of peritonitis in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. We present a case of a child with peritonitis due to this organism. Clinical features, bacteriology and treatment option and response have been discussed

PGC-1α is coupled to HIF-1α-dependent gene expression by increasing mitochondrial oxygen consumption in skeletal muscle cells

Mitochondrial biogenesis occurs in response to increased cellular ATP demand. The mitochondrial electron transport chain requires molecular oxygen to produce ATP. Thus, increased ATP generation after mitochondrial biogenesis results in increased oxygen demand that must be matched by a corresponding increase in oxygen supply. We found that overexpression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), which increases mitochondrial biogenesis in primary skeletal muscle cells, leads to increased expression of a cohort of genes known to be regulated by the dimeric hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a master regulator of the adaptive response to hypoxia. PGC-1α-dependent induction of HIF target genes under physiologic oxygen concentrations is not through transcriptional coactivation of HIF or up-regulation of HIF-1α mRNA but through HIF-1α protein stabilization. It occurs because of intracellular hypoxia as a result of increased oxygen consumption after mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus, we propose that at physiologic oxygen concentrations, PGC-1α is coupled to HIF signaling through the regulation of intracellular oxygen availability, allowing cells and tissues to match increased oxygen demand after mitochondrial biogenesis with increased oxygen supply

Sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus using cone beam computed tomography

AbstractThe aim of this study was to evaluate the sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus dimensions using the CBCT imaging modality. Thirty CBCT scans of bilateral maxillary sinuses (60 maxillary sinuses) were retrospectively selected and the height, width, and depth of the sinuses were measured. All data were subjected to descriptive and discriminative functional analysis with generation of multiple logistic regression model and ROC analysis.The overall values of the parameters were significantly greater in the males as compared to the females with the right height (90.0%) and the left height (83.3%) being the best predictors. This study proposes the importance of sexual dimorphism of maxillary sinus dimensions particularly the sinus height, when other methods used in the field of forensics seem to be indecisive. It suggests the use of CBCT in forensics thus obviating the complete dependence on the usage of conventional CT