Prevalence of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection in Hungarian cattle herds

Hungarian cattle herds were surveyed for bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) infection by ELISA of milk and serum samples. In 1993, 75% of the large cattle herds (consisting of more than 50 cattle) and all small herds (small-scale producers' stocks), while in 1997 90% of the small herds were included in the survey. In the case of large herds, 79.3% of the herds and 64.1% of the samples tested were found to be positive. Of the small herds, 13.5% and 15.7% tested positive in 1993 and 1997, respectively. The majority of large herds were Holstein-Friesian dairy stocks. Small herds with an infection rate markedly exceeding the average were found in those counties where the small herds had been in close contact with the large-scale farms, or where new herds were established by using animals of uncontrolled infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) status originating from large farms. Attention is called to the importance of maintaining the IBR-free status of small herds that constitute one-third of the Hungarian cattle population

Decreased plasma nociceptin/orphanin FQ levels after acute coronary syndromes

Foregoing researches made on the N/OFQ system brought up a possible role for this system in cardiovascular regulation. In this study we examined how N/OFQ levels of the blood plasma changed in acute cardiovascular diseases. Three cardiac patient groups were created: enzyme positive acute coronary syndrome (EPACS, n = 10), enzyme negative ACS (ENACS, n = 7) and ischemic heart disease (IHD, n = 11). We compared the patients to healthy control subjects (n = 31). We found significantly lower N/OFQ levels in the EPACS [6.86 (6.21–7.38) pg/ml], ENACS [6.97 (6.87–7.01) pg/ml and IHD groups [7.58 (7.23–8.20) pg/ml] compared to the control group [8.86 (7.27–9.83) pg/ml]. A significant correlation was detected between N/OFQ and white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PLT), creatine kinase (CK), glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and cholesterol levels in the EPACS group.Decreased plasma N/OFQ is closely associated with the presence of acute cardiovascular disease, and the severity of symptoms has a significant negative correlation with the N/OFQ levels. We believe that the rate of N/OFQ depression is in association with the level of ischemic stress and the following inflammatory response. Further investigations are needed to clarify the relevance and elucidate the exact effects of the ischemic stress on the N/OFQ system

The Utility of Cerebral Autoregulation Indices in Detecting Severe Brain Injury Varies by Cooling Treatment Phase in Neonates with Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

Identifying the hemodynamic range that best supports cerebral perfusion using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) autoregulation monitoring is a potential physiologic marker for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) during therapeutic hypothermia. However, an optimal autoregulation monitoring algorithm has not been identified for neonatal clinical medicine. We tested whether the hemoglobin volume phase (HVP), hemoglobin volume (HVx), and pressure passivity index (PPI) identify changes in autoregulation that are associated with brain injury on MRI or death. The HVP measures the phase difference between a NIRS metric of cerebral blood volume, the total hemoglobin (THb), and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) at the frequency of maximum coherence. The HVx is the correlation coefficient between MAP and THb. The PPI is the percentage of coherent MAP-DHb (difference between oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin, a marker of cerebral blood flow) epochs in a chosen time period. Neonates cooled for HIE were prospectively enrolled in an observational study in two neonatal intensive care units. In analyses adjusted for study site and encephalopathy level, all indices detected relationships between poor autoregulation in the first 6 h after rewarming with a higher injury score on MRI. Only HVx and PPI during hypothermia and the PPI during rewarming identified autoregulatory dysfunction associated with a poor outcome independent of study site and encephalopathy level. Our findings suggest that the accuracy of mathematical autoregulation algorithms in detecting the risk of brain injury or death may depend on temperature and postnatal age. Extending autoregulation monitoring beyond the standard 72 h of therapeutic hypothermia may serve as a method to provide personalized care by assessing the need for and efficacy of future therapies after the hypothermia treatment phase

Screening of Hungarian cattle herds for Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony infection with negative results

At abattoirs and farms, 1248 sera were collected from animals representing 121 farms, and examined by complement fixation test using Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony type (MmmSC) antigen. All sera were negative except seven from four farms, giving ++ reactions in the serum dilution of 1:10. On retesting, these sera and additional 30 sera collected repeatedly in both farms gave negative results. In isolation attempts, 953 lung samples collected from slaughtered cattle at the same abattoirs, and 326 nasal swabs collected from 11 herds proved to be negative for the presence of MmmSC, but M. bovis was isolated frequently. In the small farms 23.95% of the animals had pleurisy and/or pneumonia while in the large herds 34.69% had lesions. DNA extracted from 50 nasal swabs and 430 lung samples was examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using M. mycoides cluster-specific primers. DNA from further 325 lung samples was tested by the more specific M. mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony/large colony/capri specific primers and 196 samples by nested PCR specific for MmmSC. All gave negative results. The detection level of cluster-specific primers and the more specific primers was 33.4 pg of DNA, whereas that of nested PCR was 0.33 pg

Neonatal cerebrovascular autoregulation.

Cerebrovascular pressure autoregulation is the physiologic mechanism that holds cerebral blood flow (CBF) relatively constant across changes in cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP). Cerebral vasoreactivity refers to the vasoconstriction and vasodilation that occur during fluctuations in arterial blood pressure (ABP) to maintain autoregulation. These are vital protective mechanisms of the brain. Impairments in pressure autoregulation increase the risk of brain injury and persistent neurologic disability. Autoregulation may be impaired during various neonatal disease states including prematurity, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), intraventricular hemorrhage, congenital cardiac disease, and infants requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Because infants are exquisitely sensitive to changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF), both hypoperfusion and hyperperfusion can cause significant neurologic injury. We will review neonatal pressure autoregulation and autoregulation monitoring techniques with a focus on brain protection. Current clinical therapies have failed to fully prevent permanent brain injuries in neonates. Adjuvant treatments that support and optimize autoregulation may improve neurologic outcomes

Schizophrenia: do all roads lead to dopamine or is this where they start? Evidence from two epidemiologically informed developmental rodent models

The idea that there is some sort of abnormality in dopamine (DA) signalling is one of the more enduring hypotheses in schizophrenia research. Opinion leaders have published recent perspectives on the aetiology of this disorder with provocative titles such as ‘Risk factors for schizophrenia—all roads lead to dopamine' or ‘The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia—the final common pathway'. Perhaps, the other most enduring idea about schizophrenia is that it is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Those of us that model schizophrenia developmental risk-factor epidemiology in animals in an attempt to understand how this may translate to abnormal brain function have consistently shown that as adults these animals display behavioural, cognitive and pharmacological abnormalities consistent with aberrant DA signalling. The burning question remains how can in utero exposure to specific (environmental) insults induce persistent abnormalities in DA signalling in the adult? In this review, we summarize convergent evidence from two well-described developmental animal models, namely maternal immune activation and developmental vitamin D deficiency that begin to address this question. The adult offspring resulting from these two models consistently reveal locomotor abnormalities in response to DA-releasing or -blocking drugs. Additionally, as adults these animals have DA-related attentional and/or sensorimotor gating deficits. These findings are consistent with many other developmental animal models. However, the authors of this perspective have recently refocused their attention on very early aspects of DA ontogeny and describe reductions in genes that induce or specify dopaminergic phenotype in the embryonic brain and early changes in DA turnover suggesting that the origins of these behavioural abnormalities in adults may be traced to early alterations in DA ontogeny. Whether the convergent findings from these two models can be extended to other developmental animal models for this disease is at present unknown as such early brain alterations are rarely examined. Although it is premature to conclude that such mechanisms could be operating in other developmental animal models for schizophrenia, our convergent data have led us to propose that rather than all roads leading to DA, perhaps, this may be where they start

HPLC Monitoring of the Microsomal Stability of Rutin and Quercetin

Reversed-phase HPLC has been used to monitor the concentration of the two major Chamomile components rutin and quercetin during rat liver microsomal treatment. The possibility of microsomal oxidative metabolism or stability of these two components was examined using a guard-column without any clean-up. The concentration of quercetin decreased when exposed to rat liver microsomal media whereas the rutin concentration did not change significantly over one hour of treatment