New and rapid strategies for the diagnosis of bovine paratuberculosis "in situ" using latex particles.

The chemical coupling of a protoplasmatic antigen from Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratubeculosis onto core-shell carboxylated particles was investigated with the aim of producing latex-protein complexes to be used in immunoagglutination assays capable of detecting bovine paratuberculosis disease. For this purpose, sensitizations were carried out using both colored and not colored carboxylated latexes as well as the protoplasmatic antigen at pH close to its isoelectric point to favor the antigenic protein to approach the particle surface. In all cases, higher fractions of proteins were chemically-bound to carboxyl groups on the surface of the particles. The assessment of the performance of the visual immunoagglutination assays consisted of evaluating 111 sera from healthy and infected bovines with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. Complexes obtained from the colored latex allowed an acceptable visual discrimination between the studied positive and negative sera. Most of the positive samples showed strong to very strong agglutination and only a few samples reacted weakly, i.e. a sensitivity of 70%. The specificity of the assay, on the other hand, was 86%. Therefore, this rapid detection technique allows an easy and inexpensive identification of animals possibly infected with paratuberculosis "in situ" in the herds.

Drenaje pericardico intermitente con instilacion local de corticosteroides Una nueva alternativa en el tratamiento de la pericarditis en los pacientes en hemodialisis. / Intermittent pericardial drainage with local injection of corticosteroids. A new alternative in the treatment of pericarditis in patients in hemodialysis

El mantener el peso ideal en los pacientes en hemodialisis es una de las mayores preocupaciones para el nefrologo. El presente trabajo evaluo metodologia para la medicion del Kuf (Constante de Ultrafiltracion) in vivo. Los resultados demuestran que existe una caida significativa del Kuf en los 3 modelos estudiados de fibra hueca (Cordis Dow HFK 1.3m2, 1.8m2, 2.5m2) a partir del 2o. uso. Lo que significa un factor de error en los calculos de ultrafiltracion. La medicion del Kuf in vivo durante cada hemodialisis permitiria un calculo mas exacto de la extraccion de liquido. Como lo demuestra el indice de correlacion de (r = 0.97) (p < 0.01) entre la extraccion de liquido programada y la obtenida