[Serum hepcidin levels in geriatric patients with iron deficiency anemia or anemia of chronic diseases]. / Serumhepcidin bei Eisenmangelanämie und Anämie chronischer Erkrankungen im geriatrischen Kollektiv.

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and anemia of chronic diseases (ACD) are common in the geriatric population. However, differentiation between IDA and ACD is still problematic. Hepcidin is a key regulator of iron homeostasis: downregulation in the presence of iron deficiency allows enteral iron resorption, while upregulation in case of chronic inflammation blocks it. We aimed at studying whether serum hepcidin levels might serve as diagnostic parameter to differentiate between IDA and ACD among elderly. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 37 patients (age 69-97 years) were divided into 4 groups: group I (IDA), group II (ACD), group III (controls), and group IV (IDA/ACD). Serum hepcidin levels were analyzed using a commercially available ELISA kit (DRG Instruments, Marburg, Germany). Differences in hepcidin levels were tested with nonparametric methods. RESULTS: We could show a strong positive correlation between serum hepcidin and ferritin (Spearman rho 0.747) and a statistic significant difference of hepcidin levels among all groups (p = 0.034). Hepcidin levels between ACD and controls differed significantly (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Despite the small number of patients included in this study, which reduces the strength of the study's evidence, results conform with the current literature: it can be assumed that hepcidin will be used as a diagnostic parameter to differentiate between IDA and ACD in the future. However, more studies with larger patient groups are urgently needed to answer this question.

Epidemiological composition, clinical and treatment characteristics of the patient cohort of the German Competence Network for HIV/AIDS.

OBJECTIVE: As its central basis for research, the Competence Network for HIV/AIDS (KompNet) established a nationwide cohort study on HIV-positive patients being in medical care in Germany. In this paper, we describe the epidemiological composition, and clinical as well as treatment characteristics of the KompNet cohort over time. METHODS: The KompNet cohort is an open, retrospective and prospective, multi-center, disease-specific and nationwide cohort study that started gathering data in June 2004. Semiannually, follow up visits of the patients are documented, covering a wide range of clinical and sociodemographic data. At enrollment and three years afterwards, an EDTA-sample is taken; a serum-sample is taken at every follow up. RESULTS: As of 20.10.2008, a total of 15,541 patients were enrolled by 44 documenting sites. In September 2007, the cohort size was reduced to ten outpatient clinics and fifteen private practitioners, covering a total of 9,410 patients. The documentation of these patients comprised 24,117 years of follow up-time since enrollment (mean: 2.6 years), 62,862 person years inclusive data documented retrospectively on course of HIV-infection and antiretroviral therapy (ART, mean: 6.7 years). Due to the short period of recruitment till now, rates of death (0.3%-0.8%) and losses to follow up (1.1%-5.5%) were low. 84.9% of patients were men. Main risk of transmission was sex between men (MSM: 62.9%). Mean age was 45 years. About two third of patients were classified as CDC-stage B or C. Therapy regimens of currently treated patients complied with recent guidelines. Trends of mean CD4 cell count/microl regarding the initial therapy and concerning the population under treatment reflected the developments and the changing standards of antiretroviral therapy over time. CONCLUSION: The KompNet cohort covers about a quarter of all patients estimated as being under treatment in Germany. Its composition can be accounted approximately representative for the situation of clinical care and treatment in the scope of HIV/AIDS in Germany. Therefore, it is an important instrument for measuring the course of HIV/AIDS, the reality of use of antiretroviral therapy and its clinical and psychosocial outcomes in Germany.

Biliary ascariasis.

The clinical presentation of 12 cases with biliary ascariasis is reported. Ultrasonography was employed to demonstrate worms in the gallbladder and common bile duct preoperatively. Ten cases were operated upon and operative findings were compared to assess the accuracy of sonography in biliary ascariasis. Our results show that ultrasonography can be relied upon for the demonstration of biliary tract ascariasis.

Efficacy and safety of oral and parenteral methotrexate therapy in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: an observational study with patients from the German Methotrexate Registry.

OBJECTIVE: The German Methotrexate Registry has been collecting data concerning the efficacy and safety of methotrexate (MTX) treatment since 2005. The aim of this retrospective analysis is to compare oral and parenteral MTX treatment regarding efficacy and safety. METHODS: Inclusion criteria were diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, MTX treatment for at least 6 months, a consistent route of administration of MTX, and no previous or concomitant treatment with biologic agents. Efficacy was measured by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) pediatric (Pedi) criteria. Primary outcome was efficacy defined as the number of patients reaching ACR Pedi 30 improvement criteria after 6 months of treatment. Secondary outcome criteria were the ACR Pedi 50 and Pedi 70 criteria at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Analyses were performed with the intent-to-treat population. RESULTS: Of the 411 eligible patients, 259 (63%) received oral MTX and 152 (37%) received subcutaneous MTX. In both patient groups, a comparable weekly dose of MTX (0.4 mg/kg versus 0.42 mg/kg) was used, and a comparable number of patients received concomitant steroids. The primary outcome in both treatment groups was that a comparably high number of patients showed a clinical response according to the ACR Pedi 30 score after 6 months of treatment (73% versus 72%; P = 0.87). Twenty-two percent of patients with oral therapy and 27% with subcutaneous therapy had at least 1 documented adverse event. Discontinuation of treatment was observed in both groups with equal frequency, while significantly more patients with subcutaneous application discontinued MTX because of adverse events (11% versus 5%; P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: In this retrospective analysis, parenteral MTX was not superior to oral administration regarding efficacy and tolerability.

Global public goods and health: taking the agenda forward.

We examined recent special health initiatives to control HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and make four policy recommendations for improving the sustainability of such initiatives. First, international cooperation on health should be seen as an issue of global public goods that concerns both poor and rich countries. Second, national health and other sector budgets should be tapped to ensure that global health concerns are fully and reliably funded; industrialized countries should lead the way. Third, a global research council should be established to foster more efficient health-related knowledge management. Fourth, managers for specific disease issues should be appointed, to facilitate policy partnerships. Policy changes in these areas have already begun and can provide a basis for further reform.

Serum sialic acid levels in healthy individuals.

Serum sialic acid values, estimated by thiobarbituric acid method of Warren as modified by Saifer and Gerstenfeld in 50 normal healthy persons of both sexes are reported. The average values were 68.47 +/- 4.85 mg% and 67.77 +/- 7.87 mg% for males and females respectively and for both sexes the value was 68.12 +/- 6.70 mg%. Age and sex have no influence on sialic acid levels in serum.

Evolutionary relationship between Tn21-like elements and pBP201, a plasmid from Klebsiella pneumoniae mediating resistance to gentamicin and eight other drugs.

We have characterized pBP201 one of the plasmids from a collection of 46 strains producing adenylyltransferase ANT(2") (Schmidt 1984). It confers resistance to sulphonamides and produces aminoglycoside adenylyltransferases AAD(3") and ANT(2") and beta-lactamase TEM-1. Plasmid pBP201 has a size of 24.8 kilobases (kb) and contains TnA and a Tn21-related element, Tn4000 delta, with deletions in mer and the termini and a substitution at tnpR. In complementation assays with transposition-deficient mutants of Tn21 the element in pBP201 appears to be TnpA+ but TnpR-. It represents a naturally occurring defective transposon. The sequence organization of pBP201 has been compared with that of Tn21-related elements such as Tn2410, Tn2603, Tn2424, Tn1696, and Tn4000. In these transposons the integration sites of resistance genes cat, bla, aacA, aacC or aadB have been identified at two preferential locations; these are at the termini of the streptomycin resistance gene aadA. Two additional sites have been localized in the Tn21 backbone to the right of the mer operon and at res (internal resolution site) and are probably involved in the evolution of these elements. Based on these results a model for the possible genealogy of class II transposons is presented.

[Investigations on the aminoglycoside inactivating enzyme AAC-(6') IV (author's transl)]. / Untersuchungen über das Aminoglykosid-Antibiotika inaktivierende Enzym AAC-(6') IV.

In Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa from clinical specimen acetyltransferase AAC-(6') IV leads to varying phaenotypically expressed resistance to aminoglycoside antibiotics. The substrate profile and the rate of inactivation of the enzymes investigated are almost identical with each other and with the enzyme of P. aeruginosa GN 315. The enzymes cannot be associated with R factors by the standard methods for conjugation, transformation, density gradient centrifugation and agarose gel electrophoresis.