Rectal and perirectal CT findings in patients with monkeypox virus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the findings of proctitis in patients with laboratory-confirmed Mpox and correlate the patient clinical presentation and laboratory findings. METHODS: 21 patients with PCR-positive Mpox who obtained abdominopelvic CT were retrospectively identified by electronic medical record search. Three radiologists independently evaluated CT images, measuring rectal wall thickness (cm), degree of perirectal fat stranding on a 5-point Likert scale, and size of perirectal lymph nodes (cm, short axis). Mann-Whitney U-test (Wilcoxon rank sum test) was used to assess the association of rectal wall thickness and perirectal fat standing between patients with rectal symptoms and patients without rectal symptoms. RESULTS: 20 of 21 patients presented with perirectal fat stranding, with mean Likert score of 3.0 ± 1.4, indicating moderate perirectal stranding. Mean transverse rectal wall thickness was 1.1 ± 0.5 cm (range 0.3-2.3 cm); it was thicker among patients with HIV (1.2 cm vs 0.7 cm; p = .019). Mean perirectal fat stranding was greater among patients presenting with HIV, and with rectal symptoms, though not significantly so. 17/21 (81%) patients had abnormal mesorectal lymph nodes by at least two of three readers, with mean short-axis measurement 1.0 ± 0.3 cm (range 0.5-1.6 cm). Multiple linear regression showed no significant correlation between rectal thickness and laboratory values or HIV status. CONCLUSION: Nearly all patients with Mpox who presented with additional symptoms warranting a CT demonstrated proctitis. Degree of proctitis varied greatly within the cohort, with greatest thickening among patients with HIV. Physicians should have a high suspicion for proctitis in patients with suspected Mpox.

Data set on moral values and parental primary school choice: A study of Ado-Odo Ota, Local Government Area, Ogun State.

The Nigerian society has been infiltrated with poor public and private schools due to underfunding by government and intervention of private individuals who prioritize profit over qualitative education. The implication is on quality of human capital in the country which interconnect with social and economic development. The dataset examine how parents selects schools for their wards and investigated the influence of socio-economic status, school academic reputation, moral reputation of school and location of school. The data involve a multistage sampling technique and administered 250 questionnaires to parents. Structural Equation, Modelling was applied to test the influence of school academic performance, location, moral values and social economic status on parents' choice of schools for their children and wards.

An in vivo reporter for tracking lipid droplet dynamics in transparent zebrafish.

Lipid droplets are lipid storage organelles found in nearly all cell types from adipocytes to cancer cells. Although increasingly implicated in disease, current methods to study lipid droplets in vertebrate models rely on static imaging or the use of fluorescent dyes, limiting investigation of their rapid in vivo dynamics. To address this, we created a lipid droplet transgenic reporter in whole animals and cell culture by fusing tdTOMATO to Perilipin-2 (PLIN2), a lipid droplet structural protein. Expression of this transgene in transparent casper zebrafish enabled in vivo imaging of adipose depots responsive to nutrient deprivation and high-fat diet. Simultaneously, we performed a large-scale in vitro chemical screen of 1280 compounds and identified several novel regulators of lipolysis in adipocytes. Using our Tg(-3.5ubb:plin2-tdTomato) zebrafish line, we validated several of these novel regulators and revealed an unexpected role for nitric oxide in modulating adipocyte lipid droplets. Similarly, we expressed the PLIN2-tdTOMATO transgene in melanoma cells and found that the nitric oxide pathway also regulated lipid droplets in cancer. This model offers a tractable imaging platform to study lipid droplets across cell types and disease contexts using chemical, dietary, or genetic perturbations.

Organisms need fat molecules as a source of energy and as building blocks, but these 'lipids' can also damage cells if they are present in large amounts. Cells guard against such toxicity by safely sequestering lipids in specialized droplets that participate in a range of biological processes. For instance, these structures can quickly change size to store or release lipids depending on the energy demands of a cell. It is possible to image lipid droplets ­ using, for example, dyes that preferentially stain fat ­ but often these methods can only yield a snapshot: tracking lipid droplet dynamics over time remains difficult. Lumaquin, Johns et al. therefore set out to develop a new method that could label lipid droplets and monitor their behaviour 'live' in the cells of small, transparent zebrafish larvae. First, the fish were genetically manipulated so that a key protein found in lipid droplets would carry a fluorescent tag: this made the structures strongly fluorescent and easy to track over time. And indeed, Lumaquin, Johns et al. could monitor changes in the droplets depending on the fish diet, with the structures getting bigger when the animal received rich food, and shrinking when resources were scarce. Finally, experiments were conducted to screen for compounds that could lead to lipids being released in fat cells. The new imaging technique was then used to confirm the effect of these molecules in live cells, revealing an unexpected role for a signalling molecule known as nitric oxide, which also turned out to be regulating lipid droplets in cancerous cells. Further work then showed that drugs affecting nitric oxide could modulate lipid droplet size in both normal and tumor cells. This work has validated a new method to study the real-time behavior of lipid droplets and their responses to different stimuli in living cells. In the future, Lumaquin, Johns et al. hope that the technique will help to shed new light on how lipids are involved in both healthy and abnormal biological processes.

Pediatric renal pseudotumour.

We present a case of 6-year-old female with history of respiratory distress who went into respiratory failure requiring intubation. Patient was subsequently found to be in hypertensive crisis with hyponatremic hypochloremic metabolic acidosis and acute kidney injury. Renal ultrasound was performed to find the cause of hypertension. The ultrasound study demonstrated lobulated isoechoic to hyper echoic mass-like lesion in the middle and lower pole of the right kidney with increased vascularity on Color Doppler examination. The renal mass was finally diagnosed as a pseudotumour, representing hypertrophied portion of the spared normal renal parenchyma in otherwise atrophic right kidney. Diagnosis was made using a combination of US, MRI, DMSA and CT angiography thus avoiding unnecessary surgical intervention.