Detection of endotoxin in sera from children hospitalized for treatment of diarrhea in Bangladesh

The level of circulating endotoxin was determined in the sera from children hospitalized for treatment of diarrhea at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. A significant level of endotoxin was detected in the sera from 23 (54%) of 42 children. On the other hand, in 32 normal controls, endotoxin was below the limits of detection of the assay. Antibiotic and fluid therapy markedly reduced the level of serum endotoxin and improved the general condition of most patients. Non-survivors (n = 5) had higher levels of circulating endotoxin before treatment than survivors (n = 37), suggesting a significant correlation between the serum endotoxin level before treatment and mortality. Malnutrition did not affect the serum endotoxin level in the patients with diarrhea. It was suggested that infection of Gram-negative bacteria might be involved in a significant number of patients with diarrhea in Bangladesh and that endotoxin might play a pathogenic role in those patients.     

Left Main Myocardial Infarction in a Healthy Young Male—A Case Report

Acute left main coronary artery occlusion is a catastrophic and mostly fatal event. Patients may present with sudden death or cardiogenic shock. Intra-aortic balloon pump support and emergency revascularization is indicated to preserve the left ventricular function. We describe a case of left main thrombus in a health 24-year-old young male with no risk factors for coronary atherosclerosis.     

In vitro immunotoxicology of quantum dots and comparison with dissolved cadmium and tellurium

The increasing use of products derived from nanotechnology has raised concerns about their potential toxicity, especially at the immunocompetence level in organisms. This study compared the immunotoxicity of cadmium sulfate/cadmium telluride (CdS/Cd‐Te) mixture quantum dots (QDs) and their dissolved components, cadmium chloride (CdCl₂)/sodium telluride (NaTeO₃) salts, and a CdCl₂/NaTeO₃ mixture on four animal models commonly used in risk assessment studies: one bivalve (Mytilus edulis), one fish (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and two mammals (mice and humans). Our results of viability and phagocytosis biomarkers revealed that QDs were more toxic than dissolved metals for blue mussels. For other species, dissolved metals (Cd, Te, and Cd‐Te mixture) were more toxic than the nanoparticles (NPs). The most sensitive species toward QDs, according to innate immune cells, was humans (inhibitory concentration [IC₅₀] = 217 μg/mL). However, for adaptative immunity, lymphoblastic transformation in mice was decreased for small QD concentrations (EC₅₀ = 4 μg/mL), and was more sensitive than other model species tested. Discriminant function analysis revealed that blue mussel hemocytes were able to discriminate the toxicity of QDs, Cd, Te, and Cd‐Te mixture (Partial Wilk's λ = 0.021 and p < 0.0001). For rainbow trout and human cells, the immunotoxic effects of QDs were similar to those obtained with the dissolved fraction of Cd and Te mixture. For mice, the toxicity of QDs markedly differed from those observed with Cd, Te, and dissolved Cd‐Te mixture. The results also suggest that aquatic species responded more differently than vertebrates to these compounds. The results lead to the recommendation that mussels and mice were most able to discriminate the effects of Cd‐based NPs from the effects of dissolved Cd and Te at the immunocompetence level. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 30: 9–25, 2015.     

Effect of bivalirudin on length of stay in the recovery area after percutaneous coronary intervention compared with heparin alone, heparin + abciximab, or heparin + eptifibatide

Three hundred nine patients were followed during their recovery area stay after percutaneous coronary intervention. Recovery area times for patients who received bivalirudin during percutaneous coronary intervention showed an average reduction in total recovery area length of stay of 36 minutes (p <0.0001) compared with patients who received heparin alone. This reduction was also seen when compared with the heparin + abciximab group (46-minute reduction, p = 0.0007), and the heparin + eptifibatide group (35-minute reduction, p = 0.0005). Patients who received bivalirudin took significantly less time for the activated clotting time (ACT) to normalize despite significantly higher average ACTs and significantly fewer subtherapeutic ACTs.     

Hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis activity in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis: a controlled study using insulin hypoglycemia stress test

Aim: To study the response of cortisol to insulin‐induced hypoglycemia in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: We measured the response of cortisol to insulin‐induced hypoglycemia (0.15 µ/kg) in 10 patients (6 female, 4 male) with active RA and 10 (6 female, 4 male) healthy controls. All patients had never received glucocorticoids before the study. The cortisol concentration was assessed by radioimmunoassay. Results: The mean age was 47.3 years (± 14.2 years) in patients and 43.5 years (± 10.6 years) in control subjects. The mean disease duration was 66.3 months (range 12–120). The basal serum levels of cortisol in patients with RA were not significantly different from those of controls. Although the mean serum cortisol levels after insulin‐induced hypoglycemia were lower in patients with RA than controls in all samples, the significant difference was seen only in the samples 60 min after insulin injection (18.59 vs. 24.28 µg/dL, P = 0.041). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that active RA is associated with dysfunction of the hypothalamic–pituitary‐adrenal axis.     

Clarivate listed nursing journals in 2020: what they publish and how they measure use of social media

Objectives: To investigate what the most common types of articles that nursing journals purport to publish are and what they actually publish. And to investigate the extent to which academic nursing journals listed by Clarivate track alternative metrics.Methods: Journals included in the nursing Journal Citation Report (JCR) journal category in 2019 described as nursing were identified and considered suitable for inclusion in the analysis. Instructions for authors were reviewed online and mention of each type of article is identified. The tables of contents of each issue of each journal published during 2019 were examined and the types of articles published were extracted to a spreadsheet into permitted article types and published articles. Likewise, the use of alternative metrics by each journal was extracted to a spreadsheet. Pearson's and Spearman's correlation analysis was applied to investigate the relationship between articles permitted and articles published.Results: In the 2020 JCR, 123 journals were listed. The most common article type permitted was original research (n = 117),followed by review papers (n = 116), and discussion papers (n = 63). Original research (n = 7045); review papers (n = 1268);discussion papers (n = 1225); editorials (n = 793) and commentaries (n = 776) were the most commonly published categories of the article. Of journals examined, 108 (96.8％) tracked mentions on social media and the Altmetric score was most commonly used (75％). There was a strong correlation (r = 0.73; P = 0.002) between the numbers of articles permitted and published and a strong correlation (ρ = 0.86; P < 0.001) in terms of the rankings of the permitted and published articles.Conclusions: There is a relationship between the most frequently permitted article types and those published, especially for the most frequent categories of both. Original articles, review papers, and discussion papers are the backbone of academic publishing in nursing with original articles vastly outweighing review and discussion papers. Most Clarivate listed journals now use some method of tracking alternative metrics indicating how seriously publishers take their social media profiles.