Q-T Interval Prolongation in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis.

Liver cirrhosis (LC) is the end stage of chronic liver disease characterized by the appearance of extensive fibrosis and regeneration nodes associated with hepatocyte necrosis in liver but also by the reshuffling of hepatic architecture. The triad consisting of hepatic parenchymal necrosis, regeneration and scarring is always present regardless of the type of clinical manifestation. The Child-Pugh-Turcotte classification dates back more than 30 years and has been widely used in diagnosing and assessing the severity of liver cirrhosis. This is preferred due to a low degree of complexity and a good predictive value. Prolongation of the QT interval on the electrocardiogram is common, with a prevalence exceeding 60% in patients with advanced stage of cirrhosis. In these cases, beta blockers and antiarrhythmics should be avoided or used with caution and with close QT interval monitoring. Changes in heart rate and Q-T interval are new entities in cirrhosis complications. A prolonged Q-T interval in chronic liver disease could lead to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death. There is no report on heart rate and Q-T interval disorders in our area.

Social cognition in autism is associated with the neurodevelopment of the posterior superior temporal sulcus.

OBJECTIVE: The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) plays a critical role in the 'social brain'. Its neurodevelopment and relationship with the social impairment in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are not well understood. We explored the relationship between social cognition and the neurodevelopment of the pSTS in ASD. METHOD: We included 44 adults with high-functioning ASD and 36 controls. We assessed their performances on the 'Reading the mind in the eyes' test (for 34 of 44 subjects with ASD and 30 of 36 controls), their fixation time on the eyes with eye tracking (for 35 of 44 subjects with ASD and 30 of 36 controls) and the morphology of the caudal branches of the pSTS (length and depth), markers of the neurodevelopment, with structural MRI. RESULTS: The right anterior caudal ramus of the pSTS was significantly longer in patients with ASD compared with controls (52.6 mm vs. 38.3 mm; P = 1.4 × 10-3 ; Cohen's d = 0.76). Its length negatively correlated with fixation time on the eyes (P = 0.03) in the ASD group and with the 'Reading the mind in the eyes' test scores in both groups (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that the neurodevelopment of the pSTS is related to the ASD social impairments.

The Study of Uropathogenicity Factors for Escherichia Coli Strains.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common form of extraintestinal Escherichia Coli infection (E.coli), and E. coli is the most common cause of UTI.The aim of this paper is to study the uropathogenicity factors for some strains of E.coli involved in the etiology of UTI and the affiliationof urinary E.coli strains to the serogroups involved in the UTI.We studied 208 strains of E. coli from urine samples sterilely collected from patients with clinical suspicion of urinary tract infection.The study was conducted in Emergency County Hospital Craiova between 2012-2014.Out of the 208 strains of E. coli submitted to the study, 60 strains (28.84%) - MRHA with human red cells, 28 strains (13.50%) - MRHA human red cells and blood red cells MSHA with guinea pigs, and 44 strains (21.12%) - MSHA with guinea pig red blood cells; 76 strains (36.54%) - no hemagglutination. Regarding our study, 42,34% of E.coli strains presented human MRHA putting forward their potential to cause pyelonephritits. The 68 hemolytic strains (37,20%) of urinary E. coli were tested for the production of the cytotoxin, thus obtaining characteristic cytotoxic effect for 26 strains (38.20%) whereas its absence was registered in 42 strains (61.80%). E. coli O6 strains isolated from hospitalized adults are more frequently hemolytic than those isolated from the other groups and MRHA was more common in hemolytic strains of the same group O6). Mannose-resistant hemagglutination is more frequent in strains that develop HLy but do not produce CNF(Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factor), than in strains producing CNF.

Incidence and Antifungal Susceptibility of Candida Albicans Infections.

INTRODUCTION: Candida albicans is the most common inhabitant of the skin, mouth, vagina and gastro intestinal tract of human beings. One of the major reasons for the increase in Candida infection is the development of its resistant strains due to drugs used in the treatment of candidiasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS We studied 4027 samples collected from patients in various wards of the Emergency County Hospital Craiova, Romania between 2014-2015. The specimens were: pharyngeal exsudates, sputum, tracheal secretions, skin secretions, stools, ear secretions, urine, vaginal secretions. All the specimens were transported to the microbiology laboratory and cultured within 3 to 4 h of collection. Among the 4027 samples, 652 showed culture characteristics similar to Candida albicans.The samples were inoculated under sterile conditions using Sabouraud culture media, a medium designed to inhibit bacterial growth and allow the development of fungi. Antifungal Susceptibility Testing was performed by disc diffusion according to CLSI 2014 guidelines using: clotrimazole, ketoconazole, miconazole, econazole, amphotericine B, fluorocytozine, nistatin. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In our study group the urocultures and dermatological products have a high infection rate, between 100% to 70%, in contrast, we find evidence of secretion ear (3.13%) and the throat swab (9.33%). Various resistant levels were detected against antifungal drugs but, complete resistance to 5 - Fluorocitozina (100%), and the organisms showed highly sensitive to Cotrimazol si Ketoconazol (100%). In the case of Miconazol 256 (39, 26%), Econazol, 215 (32,98%), Amphotericinei B, 230(35,28%). Nystatin 329 (50,46%). CONCLUSIONSElucidating these mechanisms may provide new foundations for antifungal chemotherapy and can present an exciting challenge for the future investigations. Candida albicans infections are present and diverse clinical pathology.

Metabolic syndrome, abdominal obesity and hyperuricemia in schizophrenia: Results from the FACE-SZ cohort.

OBJECTIVE: Abdominal obesity was suggested to be a better predictor than Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) for cardiovascular mortality, however this is has not been extensively studied in schizophrenia. Hyperuricemia (HU) was also suggested to be both an independent risk factor for greater somatic comorbidity and a global metabolic stress marker in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of MetS, abdominal obesity and HU, to examine the association between metabolic parameters with HU in a cohort of French patients with schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder (SZ), and to estimate the prevalence rates of treatment of cardio-vascular risk factors. METHOD: 240 SZ patients (age=31.4years, male gender 74.3%) were systematically included. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation and HU if serum uric acid level was above 360µmol/L. RESULTS: MetS, abdominal obesity and HU were found respectively in 24.2%, 21.3% and 19.6% of patients. In terms of risk factors, multiple logistic regression showed that after taking into account the potential confounders, the risk for HU was higher in males (OR=5.9, IC95 [1.7-21.4]) and in subjects with high waist circumference (OR=3.1, IC95 [1.1-8.3]) or hypertriglyceridemia (OR=4.9, IC95 [1.9-13]). No association with hypertension, low HDL cholesterol or high fasting glucose was observed. Only 10% of patients with hypertension received a specific treatment, 18% for high fasting glucose and 8% for dyslipidemia. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of MetS, abdominal obesity and hyperuricemia is elevated in French patients with schizophrenia, all of which are considerably under-diagnosed and undertreated. HU is strongly associated with abdominal obesity but not with psychiatric symptomatology.

Pooled analysis of brain activity in irritable bowel syndrome and controls during rectal balloon distension.

BACKGROUND: Brain-imaging literature of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) suggests an abnormal brain-gut communication. We analyzed the literature to evaluate and compare the aspects of brain activity in individuals with IBS and control subjects experiencing controlled rectal stimulation. METHODS: PubMed was searched until September 2010. Data from 16 articles reporting brain activity during rectal balloon distensions in IBS compared to control groups was analyzed. Prevalence rates and pairwise activations were assessed using binomial distributions for 11 selected regions of interest. The data were aggregated to adjust for center effect. KEY RESULTS: There was considerable variability in the literature regarding regions and their activity patterns in controls and individuals with IBS. There was no significant difference found in the thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex, however, results show limited evidence of consensus for the anterior insula (AI) (P = 0.22). Pairwise activity results suggest that pairs involving the AI tend to have more consistent activity together than pairs which do not involve the AI (posterior insula and AI, P = 0.08; posterior cingulate cortex and AI, P = 0.16), however, no pairwise evaluation reached significance. CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: Our pooled analysis demonstrates that the literature reports are quite heterogeneous but there is some evidence that there may be patterns of higher activity more common in individuals with IBS than in controls. A consensus, though, regarding study designs, analysis approach and reporting could create a clearer understanding of brain involvement in IBS pathophysiology.

Homogeneous nucleation of n-nonane and n-propanol mixtures: a comparison of classical nucleation theory and experiments.

The homogeneous nucleation rates for n-nonane-n-propanol vapor mixtures have been calculated as a function of vapor-phase activities at 230 K using the classical nucleation theory (CNT) with both rigorous and approximate kinetic prefactors and compared to previously reported experimental data. The predicted nucleation rates resemble qualitatively the experimental results for low n-nonane gas phase activity. On the high nonane activity side the theoretical nucleation rates are about three orders of magnitude lower than the experimental data when using the CNT with the approximate kinetics. The accurate kinetics improves the situation by reducing the difference between theory and experiments to two orders of magnitude. Besides the nucleation rate comparison and the experimental and predicted onset activities, the critical cluster composition is presented. The total number of molecules is approximated by CNT with reasonable accuracy. Overall, the classical nucleation theory with rigorous kinetic prefactor seems to perform better. The thermodynamic parameters needed to calculate the nucleation rates are revised extensively. Up-to-date estimates of liquid phase activities using universal functional activity coefficient Dortmund method are presented together with the experimental values of surface tensions obtained in the present study.

Polyps and papillary lesions of the prostatic urethra.

There is confusion over the type and nature of polypoid and papillary lesions of the prostatic urethra. These are uncommon growths which may present clinically with hematuria, frequency, obstruction or hematospermia. Pathologically, they usually occur in the region of the verumontanum and show papillary epithelial overgrowth. There is much variation in the terminology applied to such lesions, and many different theories of histogenesis have been advanced. Both benign and malignant lesions may occur. Two cases, one benign and one malignant, are described. The literature is reviewed and a rational nomenclature and histogenesis are proposed.