Anthropometry of 5-19-year-old Tongan children with special interest in the high prevalence of obesity among adolescent girls

BACKGROUND: Despite much concern about adult obesity among Pacific Islanders, childhood obesity has seldom been investigated. AIM: Based on the anthropometry of Tongan children aged 5-19 years, this study aims to elucidate age and sex differences in obesity prevalence calculated from BMI and its relation to body fat estimated by skinfold thicknesses. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: 895 students, aged 5-19 years, in the most modernized island and a remote island, were measured for stature, body weight, circumferences at waist, hip and mid-upper arm, and skinfold thicknesses at biceps, triceps and subscapular. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was calculated using the reference data of the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RESULTS: The prevalence of obesity of Tongan adolescent girls defined by the IOTF and CDC references was 19.4% and 22.8%, respectively, being considerably higher than that of not only juvenile girls but also adolescent boys. Among adolescents, the girls' BMI was positively correlated with fat mass whereas in boys it was not. The sex difference in adolescents was parallel to that in adults, being attributable to gender differences in daily behavioural patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Among Tongan adolescents, obesity prevalence in girls was much higher than in boys, in association with fat accumulation in the former.     

Effect of errors in baseline optical properties on accuracy of transabdominal near-infrared spectroscopy in fetal sheep brain during hypoxic stress

A continuous-wave (cw) near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) instrument has been developed to noninvasively quantify fetal cerebral blood oxygen saturation (StO2). A linear Green's function formulism was used to analytically solve the photon diffusion equation and extract the time-varying fetal tissue oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentrations from the NIR measurements. Here we explored the accuracy with which this instrument can be expected to perform over a range of fetal hypoxic states. We investigated the dependence of this accuracy on the accuracy of the reference optical properties chosen based on the literature. The fetal oxygenation of a pregnant ewe model was altered via maternal aortic occlusion. The NIR cw instrument was placed on the maternal abdomen directly above the fetal head, continuously acquiring diffuse optical measurements. Blood was sampled periodically from the fetus to obtain fetal arterial saturation (SaO2) measurements from blood gas analysis. The NIR StO2 values were compared with the fetal SaO2 measurements. Variations in the NIR results due to uncertainty in the reference optical properties were relatively small within the fetal SaO2 range of 30 to 80%. Under hypoxic conditions, however, the variability of the NIR StO2 calculations with changes in the assumed reference properties became more significant.     

Evaluation of immunochromatography and commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for rapid detection of norovirus antigen in stool samples

The efficiency of immunochromatography and commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Denka Seiken Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) were evaluated for rapid detection of norovirus (NoV) from stool specimens. A total of 503 stool specimens collected from infants and young children who suffered from acute gastroenteritis were tested for NoV by the NoV-immunochromatography kit, Denka ELISA kit, and by a monoplex RT-PCR method. The NoV-immunochromatography revealed 78.9% sensitivity, 96.4% specificity, and 92.4% efficiency with the monoplex RT-PCR method. The Denka ELISA kit had a sensitivity of 90.4%, specificity of 96.4%, and an efficiency level of 95%. The findings indicate that the newly developed NoV-immunochromatography kit provides the specificity equal to that of the Denka ELISA kit, even through the sensitivity of detection was lower. However, the advantage of the NoV-immunochromatography kit is less time consuming and simpler. The data show that both the Denka ELISA and the NoV-immunochromatography kits may be used as an alternative method for screening of NoV in stool samples.     

Sequence analysis of Vietnamese P[6] rotavirus strains suggests evidence of interspecies transmission

Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the VP8* gene of five Vietnamese P[6] rotavirus strains detected from hospitalized patients with acute gastroenteritis were analyzed and compared with other human and porcine P[6] rotaviruses. It is of interest that these strains had greatest identity with two Italian porcine rotavirus strains, 134/04-10 and 134/04-11. To our knowledge, these five Vietnamese rotaviruses are the rare P[6] rotavirus strains belonging to lineage I that cluster into sublineage Ic with porcine rotaviruses, and not into sublineage Ia, as other human P[6] rotaviruses have done so far. Sequence analysis of the VP7 gene of these P[6] rotavirus strains was also performed. The results showed that the Vietnamese G9P[6] strain had high similarity with other human G9 rotaviruses, confirming a human-animal reassortant virus, whereas other three G4P[6] strains had best identity with porcine G4 rotavirus strains, suggesting interspecies transmission of rotavirus between porcine and humans. This result provides the important data on molecular characteristics of Vietnamese rotaviruses, and highlights interspecies transmission events of rotaviruses in Vietnam as well as in Asia.     

Missense mutation with/without nonsense mutation of the p53 gene is associated with large cell morphology in human malignant lymphoma

Mutations in p53 gene exons 5-9 were studied in 44 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) consisting of 35 B-NHL and 9 T-NHL. Missense mutations were found in two diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBL) and one peripheral T-cell lymphoma (unspecified). Double transversion missense and nonsense mutations were detected in one DLBL and one adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. Silent mutations were found in two DLBL. Detailed histomorphological study showed that cases harboring p53 missense mutation with/without nonsense mutation tended to have larger nuclei with much more prominent nucleoli. Cytomorphometric analysis was therefore conducted by measuring the gross area of 100 lymphoma cell nuclei in 44 cases and the results were compared between lymphomas harboring p53 missense mutation with/without nonsense mutation and lymphomas harboring p53 silent mutation or lacking mutation. It was found that the lymphomas harboring p53 missense mutation with/without nonsense mutation had a highly significantly larger nuclear gross area than lymphomas with silent p53 mutation or lacking mutation (two-sample t-test, P < 0.00001; Exact Wilcoxon rank-sum test, P < 0.00001). This result suggests that p53 mutation might induce enlargement of neoplastic cell nuclei by some molecular mechanism.     

Localization of the primordial vomeronasal organ and its relationship to the associated gland in lungfish

The lungfish, the closest fish to tetrapods, has two types of sensory epithelia in the olfactory organ: the lamellar olfactory epithelium and the recess epithelium. The former resembles the olfactory epithelium of ordinary teleosts and the latter resembles the vomeronasal organ of tetrapods with respect to the G‐protein expressions and the morphological properties of olfactory receptor cells. In contrast to the lamellar olfactory epithelium covering the surface of olfactory lamella, the recess epithelium, together with the glandular epithelium, lines the recesses at the base of olfactory lamellae and is separated from the surrounding tissues by nonsensory epithelium. In the present study, we examined the distribution of these recesses and the relationship between the recess epithelium and the associated gland in the nasal sac of lungfish. We found that the posterior part of the nasal sac contained more recesses than the anterior one, and the medial one contained more recesses than the lateral one. In addition, virtually all recesses consisted of both the recess epithelium and the glandular epithelium. Furthermore, the glandular epithelium was invariably situated proximal to the midline raphe of the nasal sac, and the recess epithelium distal to it. Possible roles of the recess epithelium and the glandular epithelium are discussed.     

Transient heating of expressed breast milk up to 65°C inactivates HIV‐1 in milk: A simple,rapid, and cost‐effective method to prevent postnatal transmission

The postnatal transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from mothers to children occurs through breastfeeding. Although heat treatment of expressed breast milk is a promising approach to make breastfeeding safer, it is still not popular, mainly because the recommended procedures are difficult to follow, or time‐consuming, or because mothers do not know which temperature is sufficient to inactivate HIV without destroying the nutritional elements of milk. To overcome these drawbacks, a simple and rapid method of heat treatment that a mother could perform with regular household materials applying her day‐to‐day art of cooking was examined. This structured experiment has demonstrated that both cell‐free and cell‐associated HIV type 1 (HIV‐1) in expressed breast milk could be inactivated once the temperature of milk reached 65°C. Furthermore, a heating method as simple as heating the milk in a pan over a stove to 65°C inhibited HIV‐1 transmission retaining milk's nutritional key elements, for example, total protein, IgG, IgA, and vitamin B₁₂. This study has highlighted a simple, handy, and cost‐effective method of heat treatment of expressed breast milk that mothers infected with HIV could apply easily and with more confidence. J. Med. Virol. 85:187–193, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Development of an assessment sheet for fall prediction in stroke inpatients in convalescent rehabilitation wards in Japan

Objective We conducted a study to develop an assessment sheet for fall prediction in stroke inpatients that is handy and reliable to help ward staff to devise a fall prevention strategy for each inpatient immediately upon admission. Methods The study consisted of three steps: (1) developing a data sampling form to record variables related to risk of falls in stroke inpatients and conducting a follow-up survey for stroke inpatients from their admission to discharge by using the form; (2) carrying out analyses of characteristics of the present subjects and selecting variables showing a high hazard ratio (HR) for falls using the Cox regression analysis; (3) developing an assessment sheet for fall prediction involving variables giving the integral coefficient for each variable in accordance with the HR determined in the second step. Results and discussion (1) Subjects of the present survey were 704 inpatients from 17 hospitals including 270 fallers. (2) We selected seven variables as predictors of the first fall: central paralysis, history of previous falls, use of psychotropic medicines, visual impairment, urinary incontinence, mode of locomotion and cognitive impairment. (3) We made 960 trial models in combination with possible coefficients for each variable, and among them we finally selected the most suitable model giving coefficient number 1 to each variable except mode of locomotion, which was given 1 or 2. The area under the ROC curve of the selected model was 0.73, and sensitivity and specificity were 0.70 and 0.69, respectively (4/5 at the cut-off point). Scores calculated from the assessment sheets of the present subjects by adding coefficients of each variable showed normal distribution and a significantly higher mean score in fallers (4.94 ± 1.29) than in non-fallers (3.65 ± 1.58) (P = 0.001). The value of the Barthel Index as the index of ADL of each subject was indicated to be in proportion to the assessment score of each subject. Conclusion We developed an assessment sheet for fall prediction in stroke inpatients that was shown to be available and valid to screen inpatients with risk of falls immediately upon admission.     

Topical immunology of nasal allergy and mucosal IgE antibodies

Summary In the present study, the in vitro tissue-radioallergosorbent test (t-RAST) was performed in two groups of patients: one with perennial attacks of sneezing, serous hypersecretion and nasal congestion, the other with nasal congestion only. The results obtained were compared with those obtained by a series of conventional allergy tests. We then found that t-RAST provided objective data comparable to those obtained with serum-RAST and that the t-RAST is a reliable means of quantitatively detecting specific IgE antibodies in the nasal mucosa. t-RAST is of special value to diagnosticians because it is able to discern unequivocally and easily those patients with localized nasal allergy.