湖南省弓形虫病研究概况

弓形虫病是一种人畜共患性寄生虫病。在我国弓形虫病对人体健康的危害已引起重视 ,从基础、流行病学及临床方面均开展了广泛的研究。本文就近 10年来湖南省弓形虫病研究概况进行综述。1　流行病学及临床研究弓形虫病广泛流行于世界各地 ,人群感染极为普遍[1] 。我国人群弓形虫感染率属于低感染度水平 ,曾宪芳等[2 ] 检测长沙地区人群血清 2 2 86份 ,其中部分为医院门诊病人血清 ,ＩＨＡ阳性率为 10 .8%。欧阳颗等[3] 用ＩＨＡ法检测该地区健康成人 110 0例 ,血清弓形虫抗体检出率为 2 .0 9%。比较男性 (2 .5 1% )与女性 (2 .11% ) ,献血员 (…     

News in Brief

Pulmonary arterial stenoses commonly occur in patients with congenital heart disease. Indications for treatment are based around reduction of right ventricular hypertension and equalization of flow to each lung and its constituent segments. There are many treatment approaches for these lesions depending on the anatomy, location and the age of the patient. Although surgical reconstruction remains an option, it is technically challenging and in many cases, the results are disappointing. In the modern era, the majority of these patients are treated with transcatheter therapy, including balloon angioplasty, and increasingly, the use of intravascular stents. In this article, we discuss these issues and deal with both the technical approach to transcatheter therapy and up-to-date results.     

News in Brief

Praziquantel became available for the treatment of schistosomiasis and other trematode-inflicted diseases in the 1970s. It was revolutionary because it could be administered orally and had very few unwanted side effects. As a result of marked reductions in the price of praziquantel, the rate at which it is used has accelerated greatly in recent years. For the foreseeable future it will be the mainstay of programs designed to control schistosome-induced morbidity, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where schistosomiasis is heavily endemic. There is currently no evidence to suggest that any schistosomes have developed resistance to praziquantel as a result of its widespread use. Nevertheless, while resistance may not pose an obvious or immediate threat to the usefulness of praziquantel, complacency and a failure to monitor developments may have serious consequences in the longer term since it will be the only drug that is readily available for large-scale treatment of schistosomiasis.     

News in Brief

In adults, hypertension has long been perceived as a public health problem. By contrast, its impact in childhood is far less appreciated. In fact, quite often, high blood pressure in children is not even diagnosed. Blood pressure is a vital sign that is routinely obtained during a physical examination of adults, but only very seldom in children. The diagnosis of hypertension in children is complicated because ‘normal’ blood pressure values vary with age, sex and height. As a consequence, almost 75% of the cases of arterial hypertension and 90% of the cases of prehypertension in children and adolescents are currently undiagnosed. Furthermore, adolescence hypertension is increasing in prevalence as the prevalence of pediatric obesity has increased. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a useful method for risk evaluation in adolescents. In addition to being viewed as an important cardiovascular risk factor in adolescents, elevated blood pressure should prompt a thorough search for other modifiable risk factors that, if treated, might reduce teenagers’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease in adulthood. Thus, assessing blood pressure values in children represents one of the most important measurable markers of cardiovascular risk later in life and a major step in preventive medicine.     

News in Brief

Plasma lipid levels are a complex trait with a genetic and an environmental component. There are two models for the genetic basis of complex traits: the common-disease common-variant hypothesis, in which susceptibility is due to variants occurring at relatively high frequency but low effect size; and the common-disease rare-variant hypothesis, where disease is due to multiple rare variants each occurring at low frequency but with high effect size. Genome-wide association studies have identified a number of common variants associated with plasma lipid levels. However, they account for only a proportion of the genetic variance. Resequencing studies are revealing the importance of rare variants in accounting for the missing variance. Next-generation sequencing will allow the relative importance of the two hypotheses to be assessed.     

News in Brief

Glycopeptide antimicrobials have been a component of our therapeutic armamentarium for nearly 50 years. Although vancomycin, and more recently teicoplanin, have performed yeoman service over the years, the specter of bacterial resistance among Gram-positive aerobes has created doubts concerning how long they will continue to be useful antimicrobial agents. In an attempt to prolong the utility of the glycopeptides, efforts are underway to create new derivatives with improved pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic properties. One example of an improved glycopeptide from the pharmacokinetic perspective is dalbavancin (BI397) – a teicoplanin analog currently undergoing human testing. Elimination of this compound from the body occurs extremely slowly, with terminal disposition half-lifes of up to 200 h in healthy volunteers, thus allowing once-weekly dosing. Although not generally considered to be a potential alternative for the treatment of infections due to glycopeptide-resistant Gram-positive pathogens, dalbavancin may still be considered an advance on existing agents based on its patient-convenient once-weekly dosing regimen.     

News in Brief

The deadly quartet of the metabolic syndrome includes obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, an atherogenic lipid profile and hypertension. The synergistic effects of these comorbidities lead to a combination of functional and structural cardiomyocyte changes and finally result in a global adverse remodeling process. Overall cardiovascular outcome is significantly impaired. Furthermore, these changes increase the need for surgical or endovascular interventions and impair their outcomes. This is potentially due to current cardioprotective techniques being insufficiently tailored to the specific needs of these patients. The following review discusses the observed cardiomyocyte changes and systemic factors contributing to these changes. It describes the ensuing problems in cardioprotection and discusses strategies that can be taken to divert or circumvent these detrimental changes.