Norditerpenoid alkaloids from Delphinium nordhagenii

Three new norditerpenoid alkaloids, nordhagenine A (1), nordhagenine B (2), and nordhagenine C (3), along with a known alkaloid, lycoctonine, were isolated from the aerial parts of Delphinium nordhagenii. The structures of the new compounds 1 and 2 were also deduced on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies.     

Bardet-Biedl syndrome presenting with end stage renal failure

A young male presented in the Nephro-Urology Department with advanced renal failure, blindness in early childhood, polydactaly, obesity, decreased mentation and hypogonadism. With these phenotypical features and renal ultrasonographic findings, he was diagnosed as a case of Bardet-Biedl syndrome. Only one younger sister of patient had similar features. Renal impairment is frequent and an important cause of death. End stage renal disease (ESRD) is rarely seen in younger patient of Bardet-Biedl syndrome. However, ESRD in early age is associated with substantially reduced survival.     

Value of Routine Renal and Abdominal Ultrasonography in Patients Undergoing Prostatectomy

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of urological and non-urological abnormalities detected on routine renal and abdominal ultrasonography in patients undergoing surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and to see if they affected the intended decision for prostate surgery. Methods: Medical records of 250 patients who underwent open or endoscopic surgery for BPH at Nishtar Hospital, Multan, Pakistan between May 2003 and December 2004 were studied. All patients had abdominal ultrasonography performed during routine preoperative workup. The frequency of urological and non-urological conditions detected on ultrasonography was calculated and the effect of these conditions on the intended decision for prostate surgery was observed. Results: In 102 patients (40.8%) urological and in 8 patients (3.2%) non-urological abnormalities were detected by ultrasonography. Urological conditions detected included uni/bilateral hydronephrosis (34 pts), vesical stones (34 pts), renal cysts (15 pts), renal stones (6 pts), small shrunken kidneys (2 pts), renal tumour (1 pt) and bladder carcinoma (1 pt). Non-urological conditions included gall stones (4 pts), liver abscess (2 pts), hydatid cyst (1 pt) and liver carcinoma (1 pt). Conclusion: The study shows that a sizeable number of patients (44%) had urological and non-urological conditions detected by renal and abdominal ultrasonography. Most patients had benign conditions but three of these patients had potentially life threatening conditions (renal, bladder and hepatic carcinoma) detected by sonography that were unrelated to the prostate. However, in only one patient (0.4%) with bladder carcinoma, surgery for prostate was postponed and bladder tumour was dealt with prior to transurethral resection of prostate (TURP). Various conditions detected by ultrasonography would have been missed if it had not been performed. As ultrasonography is a non-invasive, cost-effective and quite a safe imaging technique, in author’s opinion abdominal and renal tract evaluation by ultrasonography should be routinely performed in patients undergoing surgery for BPH.     

Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms in cardiovascular patients

BACKGROUND: The objective of the study was to determine the incidence of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) in a population of symptomatic cardiac patients. A retrospective cohort study of investigations was done at the cardiology clinic, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: There were 415 men and women recruited by referral to the cardiology clinic. All participants underwent routine ultrasound screening for AAA, and full assessment of all cardiac risk factors. Data were analyzed and correlated with age, sex, and diagnosis. RESULTS: Ultrasonographic diagnosis of aneurysm was based on an anteroposterior diameter of 3 cm or more. Of the 415 patients screened, 47 aneurysms were detected. Total incidence of AAA was 9.9% (male 14.1%, female 3.95%). All aneurysms were detected in patients over 60 years, detection rate 11.7% (male 16.3%, female 3.9%). The incidence of AAA was significantly higher in those who were subsequently proven to have cardiovascular disease, 13.8% (male 18%, female 5.15%). CONCLUSION: Screening the general population for those at risk of AAA is an ongoing debate. This study supports the concept of screening a higher risk population of patients over 60 years with cardiovascular disease.     

GPU-based real-time detection and analysis of biological targets using solid-state nanopores

The emergence of nanoscale devices has provided robust interfaces to biomolecules that faithfully transduce and define fundamental interactions of living systems. Measuring single-event behavior of important targets like DNA, and diseased cells has been achieved with a number of devices and systems. An important dimension to these systems, often discounted, is real-time computational decision-making from measured data. This paper describes an adaptive approach that can record single-molecule or single-cell events in real-time and automatically analyze patterns from the measured data. The automated analysis of measured data is done using a static threshold technique and two variations of a dynamic threshold technique: baseline-tracker and moving average filtering. Dynamic techniques for threshold detection enable noise suppression in the measured data and precise detection of patterns, but at the cost of more complex software as compared to static technique. To mitigate the computational overhead, a real-time system is implemented that uses advanced I/O techniques to minimize the execution stalls, thus enabling the system to process data significantly faster than the electrical measurement setup. Furthermore, the algorithms are implemented on programmable graphics processing units for parallel pattern detection. Our implementation provides five times faster data acquisition and pattern detection than the maximum sampling rate of the electrical measurement setup.     

A large unilocular mucinous cystadenoma in third trimester of pregnancy

Ovarian malignancy is the second most common gynaecological malignancy diagnosed during pregnancy. A grand multipara, aged 30 years presented with gestational amenorrhea with abdominal discomfort and breathlessness for last 15 days. Sonographic examination demonstrated a huge, unilocular ovarian cyst and an alive fetus of about 30 weeks gestation. Intraoperative findings were huge left ovarian cyst (42x40x20 cm) with straw coloured mucinous fluid. Left salpingo-oophorectomy was performed followed by peritoneal washings and omental biopsy. Histopathology revealed mucinous cystadenomas with inflammatory changes in omentum and no malignant cells in peritoneal washings. She delivered vaginally a female baby of 3.5 kg at 38 weeks with good Apgar score.     

Exome sequencing reveals cubilin mutation as a single-gene cause of proteinuria

In two siblings of consanguineous parents with intermittent nephrotic-range proteinuria, we identified a homozygous deleterious frameshift mutation in the gene CUBN, which encodes cubulin, using exome capture and massively parallel re-sequencing. The mutation segregated with affected members of this family and was absent from 92 healthy individuals, thereby identifying a recessive mutation in CUBN as the single-gene cause of proteinuria in this sibship. Cubulin mutations cause a hereditary form of megaloblastic anemia secondary to vitamin B(12) deficiency, and proteinuria occurs in 50% of cases since cubilin is coreceptor for both the intestinal vitamin B(12)-intrinsic factor complex and the tubular reabsorption of protein in the proximal tubule. In summary, we report successful use of exome capture and massively parallel re-sequencing to identify a rare, single-gene cause of nephropathy.