Bovine colostrum immunoglobulin concentrate for cryptosporidiosis in AIDS.

Lactobin-R is a commercial hyperimmune bovine colostrum with potent anticryptosporidial activity. It was administered to a 4 year old child with AIDS and severe diarrhoea associated with cryptosporidiosis. There was significant clinical improvement in the diarrhoea and permanent elimination of the parasite from the gut as assessed through serial jejunal biopsy and stool specimens.     

Preparation and pharmacologic activity of amido- derivatives of 3-methyl-3,4-dihydro benzo- and pyrido-1,2,4-triazin-3-acetic acids

Thirteen amidoderivatives of 3-methyl-3,4-dihydro-6-R-benzo-1,2,4-triazin-3-yl-acetic acids and of 3-methyl-3,4-dihydro-pyrido [3,2-e]/[3,4-e]-1,2,4-triazin- 3-yl-acetic acids were prepared and submitted to a wide pharmacological screening. The dihydrobenzotriazine and dihydropyridotriazine moieties were endowed with a wide pharmacogenic capacity; in fact, several compounds exhibited high antiinflammatory [(I c), (I d), (II d), (V f), (VI f)], diuretic [(I f), (I g), (I h)] and antihypertensive activities [(I d), (III d)], as well as minor effects on the C.N.S.     

Development of an open case-based decision-support system for diagnosis in oral pathology

BACKGROUND: Making diagnoses in oral pathology are often difficult and confusing in dental practice, especially for the less-experienced dental student. One of the most promising areas in bioinformatics is computer-aided diagnosis, where a computer system is capable of imitating human reasoning ability and provides diagnoses with an accuracy approaching that of expert professionals. This type of system could be an alternative tool for assisting dental students to overcome the difficulties of the oral pathology learning process. This could allow students to define variables and information, important to improving the decision-making performance. However, no current open data management system has been integrated with an artificial intelligence system in a user-friendly environment. Such a system could also be used as an education tool to help students perform diagnoses. The aim of the present study was to develop and test an open case-based decision-support system. METHODS: An open decision-support system based on Bayes' theorem connected to a relational database was developed using the C++ programming language. The software was tested in the computerisation of a surgical pathology service and in simulating the diagnosis of 43 known cases of oral bone disease. The simulation was performed after the system was initially filled with data from 401 cases of oral bone disease. RESULTS: The system allowed the authors to construct and to manage a pathology database, and to simulate diagnoses using the variables from the database. CONCLUSION: Combining a relational database and an open decision-support system in the same user-friendly environment proved effective in simulating diagnoses based on information from an updated database.     

Type 2 diabetes: assessment of endothelial lesion and fibrinolytic system markers.

This study aimed to investigate whether endothelial cells are damaged and to evaluate fibrinolytic system function in patients with type 2 diabetes. For this proposal, plasma levels of von Willebrand factor (an endothelial marker of injury), homocysteine (an inductor of endothelial injury), D-dimer (a marker of coagulation cascade activation) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (a fibrinolysis marker) were measured in individuals with both type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, with type 2 diabetes, with high blood pressure and in healthy control individuals. No significant differences among groups were observed for von Willebrand factor and homocysteine plasma levels. The type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure group presented a significant difference to the other groups for D-dimer and also presented high values for plasminogen activator inhibitor-1. The high blood pressure group and type 2 diabetes group presented separately higher values of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 compared with the control group. High levels of D-dimer and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 in patients with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure with normoalbuminuria therefore indicate a state of hypercoagulability and hypofibrinolysis, despite no evident microvascular injury supported by normal levels of von Willebrand factor and homocysteine.     

Small urothelial carcinoma: diagnosis and treatment by cold forceps biopsy

From 1987 to 1988 we used cold biopsy forceps to remove completely 92 urothelial neoplasms ranging from 0.3 to 3 mm. Rigid biopsy forceps were used. The urologist usually treats these bladder neoplasms by diathermy coagulation, which obviously makes histological study impossible. On the other hand, due to the small size of these lesions even removal with the cutting loop inevitably causes deep regressive modifications that prevent accurate morphological evaluation. Histological examination of the neoplasms removed revealed the presence of low to medium grade (stage Ta, grades 1 to 2) noninfiltrating papillary carcinoma in 75 cases, high grade (stage Ta, grade 3) noninfiltrating papillary carcinoma in 9 and medium to high grade (stage T1, grades 2 to 3) infiltrating papillary carcinoma in 8, 1 of which had areas of squamous cell carcinoma. This method enabled us to study the morphology of the urothelial lesions in the initial phase. In our study population the number of high grade lesions and/or lesions with early signs of infiltration (17 of 92) appears to be noteworthy despite the small size of the tumors.