The complement system in hepatopathies

Low serum complement is often observed in cirrhosis of the liver. This is the result of two mechanisms: a failure to synthesise a certain number of components and regulatory proteins of complement, and an increased consumption due to activation of the complement system. This acquired deficit in complement contributes to the increased risk of infection in patients with cirrhosis.     

Identification of malfunctioning in the treatment and quality of care of maternal morbidity in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

A study was carried out using a clinical audit aimed at identifying the dysfunctions in the care of female patients with serious morbidity. The study was done at the University Hospital of Cocody (CHU de Codody) and in the health training unit in the southern part of Abobo (Abidjan) from January to May 2000. The study allowed us to track and record the frequency of women who nearly died (40.4%) in both of the sites during the period of the study. Malfunctions were found at all stages of the female patients' care. The provision of medical care during the patients' hospitalisation and care provided in the emergency room were the cases and situations wherein the most frequency was noted, with 42.8% and 39.6% of dysfunctions found respectively. The delay for patients to wait to receive care was long, varying from 80 minutes to 5 days coupled with a lack of follow-up and surveillance of patients. This data demonstrates the inadequacy of the quality of obstetrical care.     

Design and fabrication of custom mandible titanium tray based on rapid prototyping

During the past few years, the combination of medical imaging and rapid manufacturing technique has proven to be a very important development. On the other hand, the conventional method has some drawbacks. For example, it takes longer time to complete an operation and it also presents some difficulty in matching the repaired contours. With advanced software and hardware, an image of an undamaged bone similar to that of the patient can be made from computerised tomography (CT); and a physical object constructed by the mirror-processed image data can be quickly fabricated with a high degree of fitting with the patient's bone. This paper presents a methodology for the design and fabrication of an individual titanium tray for the repair of mandible defects. Methods for the tray modeling using CAD system are presented: A 3D model of the bony defect is generated after the acquisition of helical CT data. An individual tray is designed using freeform surfaces geometries and fabricated by rapid prototyping (RP) technology. The results of tray filling with bone-grafting materials are then presented. Result: the tray is inserted into the patient mandible segment. The symmetry and reconstruction quality contour of the repaired mandible was satisfactory. Thus, the patient is able to eat normally. The bone-grafting material harvested from the anterior ilium was low. The clinical experience showed that rapid prototyping and reverse engineering software are effective methods of fabricating custom trays for mandibular reconstruction after bone loss due to a tumor.     

Divalproex sodium for the treatment of conduct disorder: a randomized controlled clinical trial

BACKGROUND: New treatments for conduct disorder are sorely needed. We aimed to test the efficacy of divalproex sodium for the treatment of conduct disorder. METHOD: Seventy-one youths with conduct disorder according to DSM-IV criteria were enrolled in a randomized, controlled, 7-week clinical trial. Subjects were all adolescent males with at least 1 crime conviction. Subjects were randomized into high- and low-dose conditions and were openly managed by a clinical team. Subjects and independent outcome raters were blinded to condition. Clinical Global Impressions-Severity of Illness (CGI-S) and CGI-Improvement (CGI-I) ratings, Weinberger Adjustment Inventory ratings, and staff ratings of behavioral privilege were used to assess outcome. RESULTS: Intent-to-treat analyses showed significant associations between assignment to the high-dose condition and ratings on the CGI-S (p =.02) and CGI-I (p =.0008). Self-reported weekly impulse control was significantly better in the high-dose condition (p <.05), and association between improvement in self-restraint and treatment condition was of borderline statistical significance (p <.06). Parallel analyses comparing outcome by blood drug level achieved strengthened the results, as expected. CONCLUSION: This preliminary study in a most difficult population suggests a role for divalproex sodium in the treatment of conduct disorder. Divalproex sodium improved self-reported impulse control and self-restraint, variables shown to be predictive of criminal recidivism. Studies are needed of longer-term impact and side-effect profiles. This is one of few controlled psychopharmacologic studies of conduct disorder.     

On the mechanism of desensitization in quisqualate-type glutamate channels

Tour, O.,H. Parnas, andI. Parnas.On the Mechanism of Desensitization in Quisqualate-Type Glutamate Channels. J. Neurophysiol. 84: 1-10, 2000. Desensitization of crayfish glutamate channels wasstudied in outside-out patches employing an improved fastdrug-application technique. Low concentrations of glutamate producedsubstantial desensitization without correlation with the detectednumber of open channels. The desensitization time constant(_D) was found to be independent of glutamateconcentration (0.3-20 mM). These results suggest that in addition todesensitization from a state of fully liganded channels, asubstantial fraction of desensitization occurs also from channels in apartly-liganded state. A kinetic model was developed. The modelaccounts for the multifaceted behavior of desensitization as well asfor resensitization.

     

Patterns of DNA sequence variation in chromosomally recognized taxa of Anopheles gambiae: evidence from rDNA and single-copy loci

Patterns of DNA sequence variation in the ribosomal DNA (rDNA) second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) and five unlinked single-copy nuclear loci were examined for evidence of reproductive isolation among four chromosomally recognized taxa of Anopheles gambiae from West Africa: Savanna, Bamako, Mopti and Forest, as well as sibling species An. arabiensis and An. merus. Included among the single-copy loci were three sequence-tagged random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) loci, two of which (R15 and R37) had been reported as discriminating between Mopti and other chromosomal forms. Each of the five single-copy sequences were highly polymorphic in most samples. However, the R15 and R37 loci had no diagnostic value, and therefore are not recommended as tools in recognition of field-collected An. gambiae chromosomal forms. Although pairwise comparisons between species generally revealed significant levels of differentiation at all five loci, variation was not partitioned by chromosomal form within An. gambiae at any single-copy locus examined. The few exceptions to these trends appear related to a location either inside or nearby chromosomal inversions. At the tryptophan oxygenase locus inside inversion 2Rb, variation was structured only by inversion orientation and not by taxonomic designation even between An. gambiae and An. arabiensis, providing the first molecular evidence that the 2Rb inversion was transferred between species by introgressive hybridization. By contrast, the rDNA showed fixed differences between species and a difference diagnostic for Mopti, consistent with effective, if not complete, reproductive isolation. The apparent disagreement between the data from this locus and multiple single-copy loci within An. gambiae may be explained by the much lower effective population size of rDNA, owing to concerted evolution, which confers increased sensitivity at much shorter divergence times. Taken together with the accompanying reports by della Torre et al. (2001), Favia et al. (2001) and Gentile et al. (2001), our data suggest that neutral molecular markers may not have the sensitivity required to detect isolation between these recently established taxa.     

Screening of Malian medicinal plants for antifungal, larvicidal, molluscicidal, antioxidant and radical scavenging activities

A total of 78 different extracts from 20 medicinal plants belonging to 14 plant families from Mali were tested for their antifungal, larvicidal, molluscicidal, antioxidant and radical scavenging activities. Dichloromethane, methanol, water and ethanol extracts were used. TLC autobiography for antifungal activity was run with Cladosporium cucumerinum and Candida albicans. Extracts were also tested on the larvae of the mosquitoes Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae and Culex quinquefasciatus. Molluscicidal activities were established with the snails Biomphalaria glabrata, Biomphalaria pfeifferi and Bulinus truncatus. β‐Carotene and DPPH solutions sprayed on TLC plates were used for antioxidant and radical scavenging assays. Of the extracts investigated, 20% were antioxidant and radical scavengers, 19% fungicidal, 30% were larvicidal and 11% were molluscicidal. Three of the plant extracts, from Cussonia barteri (Araliaceae), Glinus oppositifolius (Aïzoaceae) and Lannea velutina (Anacardiaceae) gave positive responses in all four tests. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.