Isolation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pteropine orthoreovirus</Emphasis> from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pteropus vampyrus</Emphasis> in Garut,Indonesia

Flying foxes belonging to the genus Pteropus are known to be reservoirs of zoonotic viruses. In this study, we describe the isolation of Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV) from rectal swab samples of Pteropus vampyrus in Indonesia. PRV is an emerging zoonotic respiratory virus that can be transmitted from bats to humans. Rectal swabs (n?=?91) were screened by PCR for PRV and 10 (11%) were positive. Phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide sequences indicated that the S2, S3, S4, M3, L2, and L3 segments of one isolate (Garut-69) were closely related to previously isolated strains in Indonesia. The remaining gene segments showed both similarity and genetic divergence with other PRV strains, suggesting that re-assortment events had occurred. This is the first report of PRV infection to P. vampyrus in West Java, Indonesia.     

Left ventricular assist device implantation after plasma exchange for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Treating a patient with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia can be challenging particularly when the patient requires urgent cardiac surgery that uses heparin for anticoagulation. We herein report a case of a 61-year-old man with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy associated with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and who underwent plasma exchange to remove heparin-induced thrombocytopenia antibodies before undergoing left ventricular assist device implantation. The surgery was performed using cardiopulmonary bypass and unfractionated heparin.