Extubación ultra fast-track vs. convencional tras cirugía cardiaca en un centro de referencia cardiovascular en Colombia. Estudio longitudinal

Introduction

The fast track / ultra-fast-track protocols are techniques used to optimise the patient care process and a quick recovery after cardiac surgery. They are one of the mainstays of efficient practice. With their use, the length of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stays are reduced, with a direct impact on costs and the quality of the health service.

Fluorimetric determination of activity and isoenzyme composition of N-acetyl-beta-D-hexosaminidase in seminal plasma of fertile men and infertile patients with secretory azoospermia.

BACKGROUND: The activity and isoenzyme composition of N-acetyl-beta-D-hexosaminidase (EC.3.2.1.52) in seminal plasma of fertile and infertile men have been evaluated. However, no data are available on the isoenzyme content in seminal plasma from patients with secretory azoospermia. METHODS: The activity and isoenzyme composition of seminal plasma from 15 normozoospermic controls and 18 patients with secretory azoospermia were determined by fluorimetric methods. 4-Methylumbelliferil-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranoside and 4-methylumbelliferil-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranoside-6-sulfate were used as fluorigenic substrates. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the assays. RESULTS: No significant difference was found in total enzyme activity between the two groups, while isoenzyme A activity was significantly lower (p=0.004) and the ratio between total enzyme activity and isoenzyme A activity was significantly higher (p=0.04) in azoospermic patients compared to controls. The diagnostic efficiency of these evaluations was low (< or =75.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show that the isoenzyme composition of N-acetyl-beta-D-hexosaminidase in seminal plasma from patients with secretory azoospermia is significantly different from controls, but this difference does not represent a useful marker of secretory azoospermia. The fluorimetric assays are simple and rapid methods for evaluating the isoenzyme composition.     

Caries experience and fluorosis prevalence in Chilean children from different socio-economic status

Abstract Caries experience and enamel fluorosis prevalence in 8-year-old children belonging to different socio-economic classes were determined in two Chilean twin cities that are served by optimally fluoridated community water from the same waterworks facility. Low socio-economic status (LSES) children had a higher mean dm ft and DMFT indices (P<0.001) than high socioeconomic status (HSES) children. Prevalence of enamel fluorosis in the permanent teeth of LSES children was 0.79, significantly higher (X²= 9.0; P<0.003) than the value 0.59 found in HSES children. The proportion of Dean's scores 2. 3, 4 and 5 in first molars, mandibular and maxillary incisors in LSES children was higher than in HSES children (P<0.001). Differences in prevalence and seventy of enamel fluorosis between both groups are tentatively attributed lo a different pattern of tap water and tea consumption at pre-school ages. Suggestions are advanced to minimize the undesirable prevalence and severity of enamel fluorosis.     

Melatonin reduces nitric oxide synthase activity in rat hypothalamus

Abstract: In this report, rat hypothalamic nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity is shown to be partially inhibited by physiological concentrations of the pineal hormone melatonin. In vitro studies demonstrate that 1 nM melatonin, which approximates the physiological concentration of the hormone at night, significantly inhibited NOS activity. In vivo studies show that administering melatonin or collecting the hypothalamus from animals at night, when endogenous melatonin levels are elevated, results in a significant decrease of NOS activity. Results also show that calmodulin may be involved in this process since its presence in the incubation medium prevents the inhibitory effect of melatonin on NOS activity.     

Mono- and bi-allelic expression of insulin-like growth factor II gene in human muscle tumors

Insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) is a mitogen for manycell types and an important modulator of muscle growth and differentiation.IGF-II gene is prevalently expressed during prenatal developmentand its gene activity is regulated by genomic imprinting, inthat the allele inherited from the father is active and theallele inherited from the mother is inactive in most normaltissues. IGF-II expression is activated in several types ofhuman neoplasms and an alteration of IGF-II imprinting has beendescribed in Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome and Wilms' tumour.Here we show that monoallelic expression of IGF-II gene is conservedin normal adult muscle tissue whereas two or more copies ofactive IGF-II alleles, arising by either relaxation of imprintingor duplication of the active allele, are found in 9 out of 11(82%) rhabdomyo-sarcomas retaining heterozygosity at 11p15,regardless of the histological subtype. Since IGF-II has beenindicated as an autocrine growth factor for rhabdomyosarcomacells, these findings strongly suggest that acquisition of adouble dosage of active IGF-II gene is an important step forthe initiation or progression of rhabdomyosarcoma tumorigenesis.Among different types of muscle tumors, relaxation of imprintingseems to arise prevalently in rhabdomyosarcomas, since we havedetected only one case of partial reactivation of the maternalIGF-II allele out of 7 lelomyosarcomas tested.     

HPV types in women with normal cervical cytology.

PCR-based hybridization methods have been used to show that some women with normal cytology are carriers of HPV DNA of the types strongly related to cervical cancer. How these women should be managed remains unclear. This chapter selectively reviews reports which have estimated type-specific HPV prevalence in relation to the presence or absence of morphological signs of HPV infection. Overall, these reports indicate that among women who were identified as carriers of HPV DNA (by PCR-based methods) and who also had a normal cytological smear, the HPV type detected in the majority of instances was a high-risk viral type for cervical cancer (HPV types 16/18 = 44.7%; HPV types 31/33/35 = 8.1%; other and unknown types = 37.9%). This suggests that screening programmes which include PCR-based HPV detection could reduce the false negative rates currently reported by screening programmes based on cytology alone.