Treatment difficulties in ocular toxoplasmosis

PURPOSE: To determine the increased incidence of ocular infection with Toxoplasma gondii, the variety of ocular manifestations and therapeutical problems of this potential blind disease. We analyzed 22 patients hospitalized in our clinic in last 2 years at whom clinical diagnosis was confirmed by positive serological tests. Is discussed the correlation between serum level antibody(IgG and IgM) and ocular manifestations and the opportunity of beginning specific treatment depend on these two parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of ocular toxoplasmosis is increasingly, the ophthalmologist must be open on atypical manifestations of this disease. The treatment remains controversial, we believe that it must be specific and correlated with ocular lesions evolutions and serum antibody level in time.     

Wanted: a national standard for early hearing detection and intervention outcomes data

The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH, 2000) has presented principles and guidelines for universal newborn hearing screening and early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI). The guidelines describe the need for a national data set for early hearing detection and intervention. The guidelines fail to provide the specific constructs for such a data set. To the authors' knowledge, no nationally proposed uniform data structure exists to capture EHDI services' outcome metrics. This article presents a proposed newborn hearing screening and EHDI data model. This model was developed to record EHDI outcomes data from Military Health System birthing centers. The data are to be collected for tracking implementation of Healthy People 2010 goals related to newborn hearing screening and EHDI programs within the Military Health System. In this article, the authors use the T. Helfer, A. Shields, and K. Gates (2000) methods to model a uniform structure for collection of newborn hearing screening and EHDI data. They also discuss expansion of the data model for application to public health reporting of EHDI outcomes in the civilian sector to include integration of Census Bureau demographic data and geographic information system data to further enhance the research value of these EHDI outcomes data. They offer the data model with the intention of supporting national research efforts for studying the efficacy of EHDI programs and to help establish a national evidence-based practice database for such programs.     

Third genome size category of avian paramyxovirus serotype 1 (Newcastle disease virus) and evolutionary implications

The goal of the study was to establish if there was a relationship between molecular patterns and virus evolution. Therefore the complete genome sequence of two distinct apathogenic Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strains was determined and a third genome size category, containing 15,198 nucleotides, was recognized. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that two major separations resulting in three genome size categories occurred during the history of NDV. An ancient division in the primordial reservoir (wild waterbird species) led to two basal sister clades, class I and II, with genome sizes 15,198 (due to a 12 nucleotide insert in the phosphoprotein gene) and 15,186 nucleotides, respectively. Ancestors of only class II viruses colonized chicken populations and subsequently converted to virulent forms. These took place more than once and resulted in an early lineage [including genotypes I–IV and H33(W)] with genome size of 15,186 nucleotides. A second division occurred in the 20th century in the secondary (chicken) host. This gave rise to the branching-off of a clade (including recent genotypes V–VIII consisting of only pathogenic viruses) with the concomitant insertion of six nucleotides into the 5′ non-coding region of the nucleoprotein gene thereby increasing the genome size to 15,192 nucleotides.     

Method for Simultaneous Determination of Free Concentration,Total Concentration,and Plasma Binding Capacity in Clinical Samples

Most quantitative research methods are based on measuring either the total or the free concentration of an analyte in a sample. However, this is often insufficient for the study of complex biological systems. The main objective of this research was to develop new methods for providing more information from samples: the free concentration (C_f), the total concentration (C_t), and the plasma binding capacity (PBC). Samples were processed using microextraction and ultrafiltration. For each of these techniques, two quantification procedures were used: addition of isotopically labeled standard and repeated analysis of the same sample. The new methods were validated by analyzing clinical samples and samples with known concentrations. Methods based on addition of labeled compound were found to be the fastest, and most reproducible. For analysis of clinical samples, methods based on microextraction were more sensitive and more accurate than those based on ultrafiltration. For analysis of pooled plasma samples, the overall accuracy of all approaches to determine PBC, testosterone C_f, and testosterone C_t was between 94 and 109%, 87–113%, and 94–122% respectively. The new approach goes beyond a simple concentration measurement, giving more information from clinical samples, with great potential for personalizing drug dosage and therapy to the needs of individual patients.     

Detection of extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase-positive Escherichia coli in bile isolates from two dogs with bacterial cholangiohepatitis

This is the first report of Escherichia coli isolates producing CTX-M-15, the predominant type of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) associated with clinical disease in humans in the United Kingdom, in a United Kingdom pet dog. This report also describes the first isolation of CTX-M/Tem ESBL-positive E. coli from bile in dogs with hepatobiliary disease.     

Establishing long-term cultures with self-renewing acute myeloid leukemia stem/progenitor cells

OBJECTIVE: With the emergence of the concept of the leukemia stem cell, assays to study them remain pivotal in understanding (leukemic) stem cell biology. METHODS: We have cultured acute myeloid leukemia CD34(+) cells on bone marrow stroma. Long-term expansion was monitored and self-renewal was addressed by replating of Leukemic-cobblestone area-forming cells (L-CAs). Also, lentiviral vectors were generated that could target L-CAs. RESULTS: A strong expansion was observed in about 75% of the acute myeloid leukemia cases (n = 30) and long-term cultures could be maintained for up to 24 weeks on MS5 bone marrow stromal cells. Cells that were able to initiate leukemic cobblestone areas resided in the CD34(+) population and were absent from the CD34(-) population. Self-renewal within these L-CAs was determined by sequential passaging of these L-CAs onto new MS5 stromal layers, which resulted in the generation of second, third, and fourth L-CAs, which were able to sustain long-term expansion and generated high numbers of immature undifferentiated suspension cells. CD34(+) cells that were able to initiate long-term cultures all coexpressed MEIS1 and HOXA9, and expressed elevated BMI1 levels. CONCLUSION: We present a novel long-term leukemic stem/progenitor assay in which new drugs can be tested and in which genes can be overexpressed or downmodulated using a lentiviral approach in order to obtain more insight into the process of leukemic transformation and self-renewal.