Pharmacology of enalapril in children: a review

Enalapril is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor that is used for the treatment of (paediatric) hypertension, heart failure and chronic kidney diseases. Because its disposition, efficacy and safety differs across the paediatric continuum, data from adults cannot be automatically extrapolated to children. This review highlights paediatric enalapril pharmacokinetic data and demonstrates that these are inadequate to support with certainty an age-related effect on enalapril/enalaprilat pharmacokinetics. In addition, our review shows that evidence to support effective and safe prescribing of enalapril in children is limited, especially in young children and heart failure patients; studies in these groups are either absent or show conflicting results. We provide explanations for observed differences between age groups and indications, and describe areas for future research

Cosmological distance indicators

We review three distance measurement techniques beyond the local universe: (1) gravitational lens time delays, (2) baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and (3) HI intensity mapping. We describe the principles and theory behind each method, the ingredients needed for measuring such distances, the current observational results, and future prospects. Time delays from strongly lensed quasars currently provide constraints on $H_0$ with < 4% uncertainty, and with 1% within reach from ongoing surveys and efforts. Recent exciting discoveries of strongly lensed supernovae hold great promise for time-delay cosmography. BAO features have been detected in redshift surveys up to z <~ 0.8 with galaxies and z ~ 2 with Ly-$\alpha$ forest, providing precise distance measurements and $H_0$ with < 2% uncertainty in flat $\Lambda$CDM. Future BAO surveys will probe the distance scale with percent-level precision. HI intensity mapping has great potential to map BAO distances at z ~ 0.8 and beyond with precisions of a few percent. The next years ahead will be exciting as various cosmological probes reach 1% uncertainty in determining $H_0$, to assess the current tension in $H_0$ measurements that could indicate new physics.Comment: Review article accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews (Springer), 45 pages, 10 figures. Chapter of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Ag

Electron microscopic demonstration of centrifugal nerve fibers in the human optic nerve

Electron microscopic views of centrifugal nerve fibers in the optic nerve stump of a 56-year-old man are presented. These nerve fibers had survived for 16 days after removal of the corresponding eyeball and exhibited terminal swellings pointing in a distal direction and indicating axoplasmic flow towards the removed eye. The centrifugal nerves in this adult lack any evidence of attempted regeneration that has earlier been observed under similar conditions in the optic nerve stump of a child. Zentrifugale (antidrome, efferente) Nervenfasern sind hier zum ersten Mal mit dem Elektronenmikroskop im menschlichen Sehnerven dargestellt worden. Diese Nervenfasern wurden in dem Sehnervenstumpf eines 56jährigen Mannes 16 Tage nach der Entfernung des dazugehörigen Auges gefunden. Endschwellungen dieser Nervenfasern waren distal ausgerichtet und deuteten damit einen Axoplasmafluß in Richtung des entfernten Auges an. Während deutliche Regenerationsversuche an den distalen Enden unterbrochener zentrifugaler Nervenfasern im Sehnervenstumpf eines Kindes früher beobachtet worden sind, fanden sich im Sehnerven dieses Erwachsenen keinerlei Zeichen von Regeneration der zentrifugalen Fasern.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47369/1/417_2004_Article_BF00414787.pd