Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis: Mass Drug Administration in Endemic Areas of (Bidar District) Karnataka-2008

Background:

Lymphatic Filariasis is a mosquito transmitted disease, caused by parasitic worm Wuchereria bancrofti. Global Programme for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis was established in early 2000. The strategy recommended by the World Health Organization is annual Mass Drug Administration (MDA) of single-dose of Diethylcarbamazine 6 mg/kg (DEC), distributed to inhabitants of Filariasis endemic areas, excluding children below 2 years of age, pregnant women, and seriously ill persons, and Morbidity Management. The health system distributes the drugs by a door-to-door strategy.

Objective:

To assess the coverage and compliance of MDA in Bidar district during the campaign in November 2008.

Materials and Methods:

Cross-sectional population-based house-to-house visit. Outcome is assessed as actual coverage and compliance, in Percentage and proportions.

Results:

Eight clusters, total eligible population of 1 131 individuals were interviewed. The coverage rate was 78% with variation across different areas. The compliance with drug ingestion was 68%.

Conclusion:

The effective coverage was below the target (85%). Side effects of DEC were minimum, the overall coverage was better in rural areas compared with urban areas.     

Current state of therapeutic development for rare cancers in Japan,and proposals for improvement

This article discusses current obstacles to the rapid development of safe and effective treatments for rare cancers, and considers measures required to overcome these challenges. In order to develop novel clinical options for rare cancers, which tend to remain left out of novel therapeutic development because of their paucity, efficient recruitment of eligible patients, who tend to be widely dispersed across the country and treated at different centers, is necessary. For this purpose, it is important to establish rare cancer registries that are linked with clinical studies, to organize a central pathological diagnosis system and biobanks for rare cancers, and to consolidate patients with rare cancers to facilities that can conduct clinical studies meeting international standards. Establishing an all‐Japan cooperative network is essential. Clinical studies of rare cancers have considerable limitations in study design and sample size as a result of paucity of eligible patients and, as a result, the level of confirmation of the efficacy and safety shown by the studies is relatively low. Therefore, measures to alleviate these weaknesses inherent to external conditions need to be explored. It is also important to reform the current research environment in order to develop world‐leading treatment for rare cancers, including promotion of basic research, collaboration between industry and academia, and improvement of the infrastructure for clinical studies. Collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders is required to promote the clinical development of treatment for rare cancers under a nationwide consensus.     

Assessment of testicular metabolic integrity with P-31 MR spectroscopy

To evaluate the reliability of phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy in the assessment of acute testicular ischemia, vascular integrity, and spermatogenesis, the authors studied in vivo canine and primate testicles grouped as follows: group 1 testes (n = 8), in situ canine controls; group 2 (n = 11), canine testes subjected to warm ischemia; group 3, canine (n = 4) and primate (n = 4) testicles from hormone-treated animals. Group 1 control testicles showed high monophosphoester (MP) levels; low levels of inorganic phosphate (Pi), phosphodiester (PD), and phosphocreatine; and high levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Group 2 testes revealed a time-dependent decay of MP/Pi ratios (from 2.1 to 0.70). Regeneration of ATP was noted in the acute reperfusion period. After 6 weeks of pituitary gonadotropin suppression, group 3 testes showed a significant decrease (P less than .05) in MP/PD ratios from a control level of 2.6 +/- 0.3 and a decrease in the MP/beta-ATP ratio from 2.4 +/- 0.1 to 1.8 +/- 0.3. P-31 MR spectroscopy appears to be a potential method for noninvasively assessing testicular ischemic injury and the metabolic integrity of spermatogenesis.     

Immunoblotting characterization of neutrophil antigenic targets in autoimmune neutropenia

We characterized neutrophil autoantigens using an immunoblotting technique with antibodies obtained from patients with autoimmune neutropenia. These results were correlated with serologic characterization of the antibodies, using indirect immunofluorescence and leukoagglutination. Of the 17 sera immunoblotted, 16 showed discrete bands in the molecular weight range of 30 to 112. Three patients with Felty's syndrome reacted with an antigenic target of 80 to 84 Kd molecular mass, a finding not seen in any of the other patients studied. By serologic testing, none of the autoimmune sera showed serologic specificity for any known neutrophil-specific alloantigen. Using an anti-NA-1 serum, we identified antigenic targets at 40, 50, and 101 Kd in both NA-1-positive and NA-1-negative neutrophils. Ten of 17 autoimmune sera showed reactivity in this corresponding range. These studies demonstrate that immunoblotting may be used to identify antigenic targets in autoimmune neutropenia and may suggest a specificity of these antibodies not definable by serologic techniques. Correlation of immunoblot reactivity with disease states associated with immune neutropenia may be useful in the study of the pathogenesis of the different forms of autoimmune neutropenia.     

心肌坏死标记物在检测心肌坏死中的应用与地位

目的:评估各种心肌坏死标记物对判断心肌坏死的价值。资料来源:应用计算机检索LWW全文英文数据库1994-01/2006-08与心肌坏死标记物相关的文献,检索词“Myocardial damage,myocardiolysis,marker”,并限定文章语言种类为“English”。资料选择:对资料进行初审,选对于临床有意义的心肌坏死物进行较详细的总结。选择临床研究的文章,无论有无对照组、是否为随机对照文献均纳入;排除观察对象为动物的基础研究和综述类文献。资料提炼:对收集到的文献进一步查找全文,凡是对于心肌坏死检测快速且可靠的心肌坏死物优先选择,研究内容相似的,以近3年且发表在较权威杂志者优先,最后纳入30篇关于心肌坏死标记物的文章进行综述。资料综合:急性血栓形成及其随后的心肌损伤、坏死是急性心肌梗死的最主要特征,准确、快速、可靠地检测血栓形成和心肌坏死标志物对内科医生诊断急性心肌梗死极具价值。研究表明缺血修饰白蛋白、心肌型脂肪酸结合蛋白、髓过氧化物酶、CK-MB和心肌肌钙蛋白对急性心肌梗死的诊断各具特点,而联合检测更有助于早期、准确诊断急性心肌梗死,为尽早抢救急性心肌梗死创造时机。结论:缺血修饰白蛋白、心肌型脂肪酸结合蛋白、髓过氧化物酶、CK-MB和心肌肌钙蛋白是较敏感的心肌坏死标记物,联合应用诊断价值更大。     

Plasma Exchange for the Treatment of Human T‐Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Associated Myelopathy

Abstract: A 55‐year‐old man was admitted to our hospital because of myelopathy. He had a history of chronic renal failure due to polycystic kidney disease at the age of 39, being treated by hemodialysis for 9 years with several blood transfusions for the treatment of renal anemia. After cadaver renal transplantation at the age of 48, he discontinued hemodialysis. At 50 years of age, he had pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous arthritis of the left elbow joint. He has experienced difficulty in walking since he was 48 years old, with mild dysuria. Gait disturbance gradually aggravated after that, and urinary retention was observed. When he was 55 years old, being human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type‐1 (HTLV‐1)‐positive in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid, he was diagnosed as having HTLV‐1‐associated myelopathy (HAM). As active steroid therapy was unapplicable because of the history of pulmonary tuberculosis and immunosuppression for transplanted kidney, a series of plasma exchanges (PE) was performed with fresh frozen plasma as a replacement fluid. After PE, dyskinesia of the left leg and dysuria subjectively and objectively improved. These results suggest that PE seems to be one of the therapeutic tools for the treatment of HAM.