Tetrodotoxin and derivatives in several species of the gastropod Naticidae

The organs of 195 specimens of 4 species of the gastropod Naticidae, collected from fish markets in Taiwan, were assayed for toxicity. The calf moon shell Natica vitellus contained weak toxicity (10-99 MU/g) in the muscle and digestive gland. The bladder moon shell Polinices didyma contained moderate (100-999 MU/g) and weak toxicity in the muscle and digestive gland, respectively. The digestive gland in 1 out of 20 specimens of the pear-shaped moon shell P. tumidus was toxic (4 MU/g). All tissues of the butterfly moon shell N. alapapilionis were non-toxic. The toxins were partially purified from the toxic specimens of the calf moon shell and the bladder moon shell, and identified to be tetrodotoxin and anhydrotetrodotoxin.     

A Clinical Database-Driven Approach to Decision Support: Predicting Mortality Among Patients with Acute Kidney Injury

In exploring an approach to decision support based on information extracted from a clinical database, we developed mortality prediction models of intensive care unit (ICU) patients who had acute kidney injury (AKI) and compared them against the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS). We used MIMIC, a public de-identified database of ICU patients admitted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and identified 1400 patients with an ICD9 diagnosis of AKI and who had an ICU stay > 3 days. Multivariate regression models were built using the SAPS variables from the first 72 hours of ICU admission. All the models developed on the training set performed better than SAPS (AUC = 0.64, Hosmer-Lemeshow p < 0.001) on an unseen test set; the best model had an AUC = 0.74 and Hosmer-Lemeshow p = 0.53. These findings suggest that local customized modeling might provide more accurate predictions. This could be the first step towards an envisioned individualized point-of-care probabilistic modeling using one's clinical database.     

Laparoscopic partial cystectomy for a vesical leiomyoma

A 47-year-old woman presented with gross hematuria and urinary frequency for 6 months. The tumor located at the dome of bladder was resected by transurethral resectoscope. The pathology revealed leiomyoma; however, her symptoms did not improve after the endoscopic procedure. We performed transurethral mucosal incision for circumscribing the margin of tumor and transperitoneoscopic partial cystectomy to treat the patient successfully.     

Impact of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and coronary artery disease on tooth extraction after nonsurgical endodontic treatment

Introduction

Limited prospective data are available on the long-term prognosis of teeth receiving nonsurgical root canal treatment (NSRCT) in patients with systemic diseases including diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT), and coronary artery disease (CAD). This prospective study aimed to elucidate the impact of systemic diseases on the risk of tooth extraction after NSRCT.

Methods

A total of 49,334 NSRCT teeth were randomly selected from databank in October 2003 and were followed for 2 years for tooth extraction after NSRCT. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the risk of tooth extraction after NSRCT.

Results

Of the 49,334 teeth, 1592 (3.2%) were extracted during the 2-year follow-up period, yielding a 2-year tooth retention rate of 96.8%. We found that DM (hazard ratio [HR], 1.79), HT (HR, 1.75), and CAD (HR, 1.70) were significant risk factors for tooth extraction after NSRCT (all P values <.0001) in univariate Cox proportional analyses. After adjustment for age, gender, and tooth type in multivariate analyses, DM (HR, 1.29) and HT (HR, 1.18) remained as independent risk factors (both P values <.05). Simultaneous possession of 2 diseases of DM, HT, and CAD was a significant and robust predictor for an increased long-term risk of tooth extraction after NSRCT (P for trend <.001).

Conclusions

An increased risk of tooth extraction after NSRCT is significantly associated with DM, HT, and CAD individually. Moreover, the constellation of systemic disease burden also manifests the importance in addition to other potential confounders.     

Influenza A(H6N1) Virus in Dogs,Taiwan

We determined the prevalence of influenza A virus in dogs in Taiwan and isolated A/canine/Taiwan/E01/2014. Molecular analysis indicated that this isolate was closely related to influenza A(H6N1) viruses circulating in Taiwan and harbored the E627K substitution in the polymerase basic 2 protein, which indicated its ability to replicate in mammalian species.     

Effect of A-scan rate and interscan interval on optical coherence angiography

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) can provide rapid, volumetric, and noninvasive imaging of tissue microvasculature without the requirement of exogenous contrast agents. To investigate how A-scan rate and interscan time affected the contrast and dynamic range of OCTA, we developed a 1.06-µm swept-source OCT system enabling 100-kHz or 200-kHz OCT using two light sources. After system settings were carefully adjusted, almost the same detection sensitivity was achieved between the 100-kHz and 200-kHz modalities. OCTA of ear skin was performed on five mice. We used the variable interscan time analysis algorithm (VISTA) and the designated scanning protocol with OCTA images reconstructed through the correlation mapping method. With a relatively long interscan time (e.g., 12.5 ms vs. 6.25 ms for 200-kHz OCT), OCTA can identify more intricate microvascular networks. OCTA image sets with the same interscan time (e.g., 12.5 ms) were compared. OCTA images acquired with a 100-kHz A-scan rate showed finer microvasculature than did other imaging modalities. We performed quantitative analysis on the contrast from OCTA images reconstructed with different A-scan rates and interscan time intervals in terms of vessel area, total vessel length, and junction density.