Effect of drinking soda sweetened with aspartame or high-fructose corn syrup on food intake and body weight

To examine whether artificial sweeteners aid in the control of long-term food intake and body weight, we gave free-living, normal-weight subjects 1150 g soda sweetened with aspartame (APM) or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) per day. Relative to when no soda was given, drinking APM-sweetened soda for 3 wk significantly reduced calorie intake of both females (n = 9) and males (n = 21) and decreased the body weight of males but not of females. However, drinking HFCS-sweetened soda for 3 wk significantly increased the calorie intake and body weight of both sexes. Ingesting either type of soda reduced intake of sugar from the diet without affecting intake of other nutrients. Drinking large volumes of APM-sweetened soda, in contrast to drinking HFCS-sweetened soda, reduces sugar intake and thus may facilitate the control of calorie intake and body weight.     

Tropical pyomyositis

A 22 year old male presented with symptoms of diffuse muscle pain and multiple abnormal laboratory findings that were eventually attributed to tropical myositis. Computed tomography scan was more reliable than ultrasound and served as a guide to needle aspiration and pathologic diagnosis.     

Alpha-thalassemia in two Mediterranean populations

We used restriction endonuclease analysis to determine the incidence of alpha-thalassemia in two Mediterranean islands. In a random population sample, the gene frequency of deletion-type alpha-thalassemia-2 (- alpha) was 0.18 in Sardinians and 0.07 in Greek Cypriots. All cases were the rightward crossover type. From these frequencies and the known incidence of hemoglobin-H disease in these populations, we calculated the frequency of the alpha-thalassemia-1 genotype (--) and determined that it was low. We also found that beta-thalassemia homozygotes in sardinia have a higher incidence of alpha-thalassemia than normals and beta thalassemia heterozygotes because a significantly greater number of these homozygotes are also homozygous for the alpha-thalassemia-2 lesion. These findings support the theory that coinheritance of alpha- thalassemia mitigates the severity of beta-thalassemia and suggest that the protection is most pronounced when two alpha-globin genes are deleted.     

Effects of repeated lithium administration on the subcellular distribution of 5-hydroxytryptamine in rat brain.

1 The content and distribution of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) between subcellular fractions from rat whole brain (excluding cerebellum) were examined following repeated lithium administration. 2 Lithium chloride (3 mEq/kg body wt. s.c.) administered twice daily for 3 days produced no change in the 5-HT content of primary subcellular fractions (P1-nuclear; P2-crude synaptosomal; SNT-soluble) measured on the 4th day. 3 Similarly, repeated lithium treatment alone did not appear to produce increases in the 5-HT content of either cytoplasmic (S) or vesicular (M2) fractions derived from hypo-osmotically disrupted synaptosomes (P2) when compared to control rats receiving NaCl only. 4 One hour after monoamine oxidase inhibition with tranylcypromine, there was a further selective 25% increase in 5-HT accumulation in the lithium-treated rats over control values in the soluble cytoplasmic fraction (S) and in fractions containing occluded cytoplasm only. This increase did not occur in the synaptic vesicle fraction (M2). This corresponds to an increase in 5-HT turnover rate due to the lithium treatment of approx. 50%. 5 These findings lend additional support to the hypothesis that lithium treatment alters the intraneuronal storage or compartmentation of 5-HT between vesicles and cytoplasm.     

The long-term effectiveness of generic adult fixed-dose combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected Ugandan children

Background

Access to pediatric antiretroviral formulations is increasing in resource-limited countries, however adult FDCs are still commonly used by antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs.

Objective

To describe long-term effectiveness of using adult FDC of d4T+3TC+NVP (Triomune) in children for HIV treatment.

Methods

Clinical, immunologic, and virologic outcomes of HIV-infected ART-naïve children aged six months to 12 years, were evaluated up to 96 weeks post-ART initiation.

Results

From March 2004 to June 2006, 104 children were followed with a median age of 5.4 years, median CD4 cell percent and HIV-1 RNA were 11.0% (IQR 6.7–13.9) and 348,846copies/mL (IQR 160,941–681,313) respectively at baseline. Using Kaplan-Meir estimates, 75% of children had undetectable viral loads (<400copies/mL) at 96weeks of ART. Children with a baseline CD4 cell percent >15% were 3 times more likely to achieve viral load <400copies/mL than those with baseline CD4 cell percent <5% after adjusting for baseline age {aHR = 3.03 (1.10–8.32), p=0.03}; no difference was found among those with CD4 cell percent >5–14.9% and <5%.

Conclusion

Treatment with generic adult FDC for HIV-infected Ugandan children led to sustained clinical, immunologic and virologic response during 96 weeks of ART. Early initiation of ART is key to achieving virological success.