A case of placenta percreta with massive hemorrhage during cesarean section

We describe a case of a 39-year-old woman diagnosed with placenta percreta complicated by massive hemorrhage during a cesarean section. At 27 weeks of gestation, she underwent an emergency cesarean section under general anesthesia for vaginal bleeding and an intrauterine infection. Soon after delivery, a massive hemorrhage was encountered while attempting to separate the placenta percreta from the bladder wall. Although total abdominal hysterectomy and partial cystectomy were performed, massive hemorrhaging persisted. Bleeding was finally controlled following bilateral internal iliac artery embolization. We used a cell salvage device and a rapid infuser for hemodynamics stabilization. Total blood loss was 47,000 mL, and anesthesia time was 12 h and 47 min. The patient was discharged on the 32nd postoperative day without major complications. Placenta accreta can be associated with life-threatening hemorrhage and it is vital to plan accordingly preoperatively

High-Sensitivity Analysis of Naturally Occurring Sugar Chains, Using a Novel Fluorescent Linker Molecule

To analyse the binding of sugar chains to proteins, viruses and cells, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique is very convenient and effective because it is a real-time, non-destructive detection system. Key to this method is linker compounds for immobilization of the sugar chains to the gold-coated chip for SPR. Also, well-designed fluorescent labelling reagents are essential when analysing the structure of trace amounts of sugar chains derived from natural sources, such as glycoproteins on the surface of specific cells. In this report, we developed a novel linker molecule, named ‘f-mono’, which has both of these properties: simple immobilization chemistry and a fluorescent label. Since the molecule contains a 2,5-diaminopyridyl group and a thioctic acid group, conjugation with sugar chains can be achieved using the well-established reductive amination reaction. This conjugate of sugar chain and fluorescent linker (fluorescent ligand-conjugate, FLC) has fluorescent properties (ex. 335 nm, em. 380 nm), and as little as 1 μg of FLC can be easily purified using HPLC with a fluorescent detector. MS and MS/MS analysis of the FLC is also possible. As a +2 Da larger MS peak ([M + H + 2]+ ion) was always associated with the theoretical MS peak ([M + H]+) (due to the reduction of the thioctic acid moiety), the MS peaks of the FLC were easily found, even using unfractionated crude samples. Immobilization of the FLC onto gold-coated chips, and their subsequent SPR analyses were successively accomplished, as had been performed previously using non-fluorescent ligand conjugates

Combined Pre-Supernova Alert System with Kamland and Super-Kamiokande

International audiencePreceding a core-collapse supernova, various processes produce an increasing amount of neutrinos of all flavors characterized by mounting energies from the interior of massive stars. Among them, the electron antineutrinos are potentially detectable by terrestrial neutrino experiments such as KamLAND and Super-Kamiokande via inverse beta decay interactions. Once these pre-supernova neutrinos are observed, an early warning of the upcoming core-collapse supernova can be provided. In light of this, KamLAND and Super-Kamiokande have been monitoring pre-supernova neutrinos since 2015 and 2021, respectively. Recently, we performed a joint study between KamLAND and Super-Kamiokande on pre-supernova neutrino detection. A pre-supernova alert system combining the KamLAND detector and the Super-Kamiokande detector is developed and put into operation, which can provide a supernova alert to the astrophysics community. Fully leveraging the complementary properties of these two detectors, the combined alert is expected to resolve a pre-supernova neutrino signal from a 15 M$_{\odot}$ star within 510 pc of the Earth, at a significance level corresponding to a false alarm rate of no more than 1 per century. For a Betelgeuse-like model with optimistic parameters, it can provide early warnings up to 12 hours in advance