Major emergency orthopaedic surgery in patients with a concomitant acute coronary event following trauma.

INTRODUCTION: This paper is a short series description of our experience with five cases managed surgically for orthopaedic trauma and who suffered meanwhile an acute coronary event. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five polytrauma, multiply fractured patients were treated in our institution for various lesions, including an open femur and knee articular fractures, major fractures around the pelvis and hips. They had suffered around the same time an acute coronary event complicating the orthopaedic management. One patient was treated for the orthopaedic condition as a delayed emergency, with a five day retard due to pre-operative pulmonary oedema. Four patients had cardiac evaluation, angiogram or echocardiogram. The patients were managed by a multi-disciplinary team. RESULTS: One patient died post-operatively due to multiple complications, and four patients survived with a good functional outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with acute orthopaedic polytrauma presenting concomitant acute coronary events should be treated by multi-disciplinary teams, allowing early surgical management in a safe cardio-vascular and stable haemodynamic status.

Seroprevalence of bovine intestinal schistosomosis in different agro- ecological zones of south India using excretory-secretory antigen based ELISA.

Intestinal schistosmosis caused by Schistosoma spindale and S. indicum is an important snail borne trematode infection that adversely affects the production and productivity of bovines in India. The present communication reports the high seroprevalence of infection among dairy cattle and buffaloes, under field conditions, utilizing a sensitive and specific excretory-secretory antigen based ELISA. Comparison of ELISA with copro-PCR, microscopy and post-mortem mesentery examination revealed the diagnostic superiority of ELISA. Seroprevalence of infection was mapped for the first time in India with special emphasis to agro- ecological zones. Anti-schistosome antibodies were detected in 34.96% of dairy cattle and buffaloes in the state with the evidence of significant influence of topography on the prevalence of infection. The study also highlighted the need to trace endemic pockets of infection in the country through efficient ante-mortem surveillance and to initiate anti-schistosome therapy prior to animal transport.

Cloning and sequence analysis of a partial CDS of leptospiral ligA gene in pET-32a - Escherichia coli DH5α system.

AIM: This study aims at cloning, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis of a partial CDS of ligA gene in pET-32a - Escherichia coli DH5α system, with the objective of identifying the conserved nature of the ligA gene in the genus Leptospira. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A partial CDS (nucleotide 1873 to nucleotide 3363) of the ligA gene was amplified from genomic DNA of Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR-amplified DNA was cloned into pET-32a vector and transformed into competent E. coli DH5α bacterial cells. The partial ligA gene insert was sequenced and the nucleotide sequences obtained were aligned with the published ligA gene sequences of other Leptospira serovars, using nucleotide BLAST, NCBI. Phylogenetic analysis of the gene sequence was done by maximum likelihood method using Mega 6.06 software. RESULTS: The PCR could amplify the 1491 nucleotide sequence spanning from nucleotide 1873 to nucleotide 3363 of the ligA gene and the partial ligA gene could be successfully cloned in E. coli DH5α cells. The nucleotide sequence when analyzed for homology with the reported gene sequences of other Leptospira serovars was found to have 100% homology to the 1910 bp to 3320 bp sequence of ligA gene of L. interrogans strain Kito serogroup Canicola. The predicted protein consisted of 470 aminoacids. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the ligA gene was conserved in L.interrogans species. CONCLUSION: The partial ligA gene could be successfully cloned and sequenced from E. coli DH5α cells. The sequence showed 100% homology to the published ligA gene sequences. The phylogenetic analysis revealed the conserved nature of the ligA gene. Further studies on the expression and immunogenicity of the partial LigA protein need to be carried out to determine its competence as a subunit vaccine candidate.

Efficacy of Dot-ELISA using different antigens in detecting anti-schistosome antibodies among bovines in field conditions.

Schistosomosis has been recognised as one of the major parasitic diseases of livestock and human beings. Schistosoma spindale is the major cause of visceral schistosomosis among bovines of Kerala State. Besides pathology in animals, it has been long known that cercariae of S. spindale are a common cause of dermatitis in human beings in Asia. However, detection of this disease based on coprology has underestimated the prevalence of this economically important disease among cattle of the State. An efficient diagnostic tool providing unequivocal evidence of infection in living animals is perhaps, the key to formulate and deliver control measures to the target population. It is also crucial for an enhanced understanding of parasite epidemiology. The utility of excretory-secretory proteins as diagnostic and vaccine candidates for schistosomosis has been a focus of medical research since long. There exists a paucity of information with regard to analysis of ES proteins of S. spindale and their incorporation to develop sensitive and specific serodiagnostic tool. Hence a study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of Dot-ELISA incorporating different antigens of S. spindale and to validate the test under field conditions.

Evaluation and comparison of native and recombinant LipL21 protein-based ELISAs for diagnosis of bovine leptospirosis.

A 21-kDa leptospiral lipoprotein (LipL21) was evaluated for its diagnostic potential to detect bovine leptospirosis by ELISA. Both native LipL21 (nLipL21) and recombinant LipL21 (rLipL21) proteins were tested and compared regarding diagnostic efficiency, and no statistically significant difference was observed. The sensitivity of rLipL21 ELISA for 62 microscopic agglutination test (MAT) positive sera was 100% and the specificity with 378 MAT negative sera was 97.09%. Thus, rLipL21 protein-based ELISA could be used as an alternative to MAT for the diagnosis of bovine leptospirosis.