Birth weight, childhood growth and abdominal obesity in adult life.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of adult abdominal obesity to birth weight, childhood growth and lifetime socioeconomic circumstances. METHODS: A cohort of 3200 men and women with measured waist and hip circumference, height and weight at age 43 who have been followed since their birth in March 1946 in England, Scotland and Wales. Regression models were used to examine mean waist-hip ratio and waist circumference in relation to prospective measures of birth weight, weight relative to height in childhood at ages 4, 7, 11 and 15 and adult body mass index, and to test the independent and interactive nature of the associations and adjust for childhood and adult social class. RESULTS: There was a small inverse effect of birth weight on waist-hip ratio (P=0.037) but not waist circumference in women, after adjustment for current body size. Relative weight at age 7 was inversely related to waist-hip ratio and waist circumference in men (P<0.001 for both) and waist circumference in women (P=0.007) after adjustment for current body size. These relationships were attenuated in men of large body mass index (P<0.01 for interactions between relative weight at 7 y and body mass index in both cases) but were not modified by birth weight. Relative weights at other ages showed similar patterns to those observed at age 7, the effect being weakest at age 4. These findings were independent of lifetime socioeconomic circumstances. CONCLUSION: This study found a small prenatal inverse effect of fetal growth on adult waist-hip ratio due to a reduced hip size. There was also an inverse postnatal effect of childhood growth such that for any given adult body size those who had been lighter in childhood were more at risk of abdominal obesity. These relationships were independent of childhood socioeconomic circumstances and support the idea that insulin resistance may be linked to low weight in childhood.     

Ultrapure alginate anti-adhesion gel does not impair colon anastomotic strength

Background

Ultrapure alginate gel is promising in terms of adhesion prevention. Because anti-adhesive barriers have been shown to disturb healing of bowel anastomoses, the effect of ultrapure alginate gel on the repair of colon anastomoses was studied.

Materials and methods

In 102 male Wistar rats, a 0.5-cm segment was resected from the descending colon and continuity was restored by an inverted single-layer end-to-end anastomosis. Animals were randomized into a control, an alginate gel, and a sodium hyaluronate carboxymethyl cellulose film group, each n = 34. Half of each group was sacrificed at day 3 and 7 postoperatively. Anastomotic strength was assessed by measuring both bursting pressure and breaking strength. Hydroxyproline content was measured and histologic analysis was performed. The incidence of adhesion and abscess formation was scored at sacrifice.

Results

No difference in either anastomotic-bursting pressure or breaking strength was found between experimental groups and the controls at any time point. Both the incidence of adhesion formation (35% versus 71%, P = 0.007) and the adhesion score (0.38 versus 0.79, P = 0.009) were significantly lower in the alginate gel group than in the controls. The abscess rate was higher (46% versus 18%, P = 0.030) in the hyaluronate carboxymethyl cellulose group than in the controls and unchanged in the alginate gel group.

Conclusions

While reducing adhesion formation, ultrapure alginate gel does not interfere with the development of colonic anastomotic strength during the crucial early healing period.     

Hepatosplenic T Cell Lymphoma

A 26 year old lady came with intermittent fever since eight months. She also complained of abdominal pain and decreased appetite for six months. She had swelling of feet and distension of abdomen due to ascites since one month. There was history of jaundice one month back. On radiological examination, hepatomegaly with dilated portal vein, massive splenomegaly and ascites without any lymphadenopathy was noted. Chest X-ray was normal. Blood examination and bone marrow studies were inconclusive. We received her liver biopsy, which showed normal architecture and sinusoidal infiltration by a monomorphic population of small to intermediate sized lymphoid cells. Portal tracts were free of such infiltrate. These lymphoid cells were LCA, CD3, CD43 positive and negative for CD20, CD34, CD4, CD8 and c-kit. Based on all these features, a diagnosis of Hepatosplenic T cell lymphoma was made. She was treated symptomatically, however she died within two months of diagnosis.     

World Witnesses a Tumultuous Year while India Reports an Eventful Decade in the Long Story of Polio Eradication

With recent outbreaks in Syria and Horn of Africa, silent circulation of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Israel, West Bank, and Gaza, and fresh spate of violence against vaccinators and their security personnel in Pakistan, the world is facing a turbulent final ascent to the summit of polio eradication. On the positive side, we may also be witnessing the end of wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) and defused programmatic crisis caused by funding gaps, while India registers third consecutive polio-free year. Having a cogent endgame plan 2013-2018, informed by some cardinal lessons learned from an eventful decade in India, is also a very significant development. Now, there is a parallel pursuit against WPV and vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV). Endgame would also involve integration of at least one dose of affordable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to up-scaled routine immunization (RI), switch from trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) in 144 countries before 2018, stockpiling of mOPV, and simultaneous global cessation of bOPV before 2020. Role of antivirals in post-eradication era is still unclear. Some specific threats emerging at this stage are as follows: Global buildup of new birth cohorts in non-endemic countries with weak RI and downscaled supplementary immunization activities (SIAs), tremendous pressure on peripheral health workers, and fatigued systems. Cultural resistance to transnational programs is taking a violent shape in some areas. Differential interpretations of ‘right to say no’, on both sides of the divide, are damaging a global cause. Amidst all these concerns, let us not forget to underline the sacrifice made by frontline vaccinators working in some of the most challenging circumstances.     

Synthesis of high surface area porous carbon from anaerobic digestate and it's electrochemical study as an electrode material for ultracapacitors

The remnants of the anaerobic digestion process, ‘the digestate,’ mainly consist of fibrous lignin and cellulose like molecules, as a significant carbon repository along with some other inorganic impurities. The present work demonstrates the potential use of anaerobically treated fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) as a source of porous carbon for supercapacitor electrode materials. This work suggests that the FVW digestate can inherit silicon (Si) and calcium (Ca) based inorganic impurities, which play an essential role as structure directing agents for digestate derived carbon. These contaminants act as hard templates during carbonization to create hierarchical pores and contribute to an enhancement in surface area. Different batches from an anaerobic biogas digester plant are converted to porous carbon and examined as a potential supercapacitor electrode material. A maximum capacitance of 235 F g⁻¹ is achieved from DDHPC-4kh carbon with a specific surface area of 2502 m² g⁻¹ at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹ in an acidic aqueous electrolyte. The results are significant in comparison to other bio-sourced precursors studied previously.

The remnants of the anaerobic digestion process, ‘the digestate,’ mainly consist of fibrous lignin and cellulose like molecules, as a significant carbon repository along with some other inorganic impurities.     

Disease surveillance in recombining pathogens: multilocus genotypes identify sources of human Coccidioides infections

Molecular surveillance of pathogenic microbes works by genotyping isolates with DNA fingerprinting techniques and then using these genotypes to assign individuals to populations. Clonality is assumed in many fingerprinting studies, although this assumption has been shown to be false for many organisms. To accommodate recombining organisms into surveillance programs, methods using population allele frequencies in combination with individual multilocus genotypes are necessary. Here, we develop a statistical method appropriate for haploid recombining microbes that allows individuals to be assigned to populations. We illustrate the usefulness of this technique by inferring the source populations for Coccidioides isolates recovered from patients treated outside the endemic area of Coccidioides sp., the etiological agents of human coccidioidomycosis, but with a travel history including visits to one or more endemic areas.