Diagnostic value of von willebrand factor [VWF] in poisoned versus non-poisoned patients suffering from respiratory distress in Minoufiya university hospital in the period from January 2009 till June 2010

Acute respiratory distress syndrome [ARDS] is characterized by an extensive alveolar capillary leak, permitting contact between intro-alveolar factors and the endothelium. Von Willebrand Factor antigen [VWF] is a macromolecular antigen that is produced predominantly by endothelial cells and to a lesser extent by platelets. VWF has been investigated as a biological marker of endothelial injury in patients both at risk for and with established ALI/ARDS caused by different etiologies. However, to our knowledge, VWF was not investigated in ALI/ARDS cases caused by poisoning insults. We aimed to investigate VWF as a possible diagnostic, prognostic and predictive marker for ALI/ARDS in poisoned and non-poisoned patients. VWF antigen was measured [By ELISA] in 52 patients with ALI/ARDS, 13 poisoned patients without ALI/ARDS and 20 age and sex matched control subjects. There was a highly significant difference between VWF in patients and control groups [P

Pigmented villonodular synovitis: how to make an early diagnosis

Pigmented villonodular synovitis [PVNS] is a rare condition usually affecting the knee. It is a benign proliferative growth of the synovium of obscure etiology with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations. PVNS can be a dificult condition to manage, with an average delay in diagnosis of 4.4 years. We describe a case of diffuse form of PVNS in a young patient who presented with vague left knee complaints for two years

combined pretransplantation seropositivity of kidney transplant recipients for cytomegalovirus antigens [pp150 and pp28] a predictor for protection against infection?

This study was aimed at detecting antibodies to the antigens which may contribute to protection against cytomegalovirus [CMV] infection after organ transplantation. A total of 203 kidney transplant patients were enrolled in the study. Based on CMV antigenemia assay, 23 patients were antigen-positive and of the remaining 180 antigen-negative patients, 46 were selected as controls matched for age, gender and source of kidney. The 69 kidney recipients [KR] had CMV antibody due to previous infection and were followed up for a period of 6 months after transplantation for the development of active CMV infections by the antigenemia assay. Antibody responses to five CMV-related peptide antigens [pp65, gB, pp150, pp28 and pp38] were investigated by enzyme immunoassay and their presence was correlated with the results of the CMV antigenemia assay. Of the five CMV-related peptide antigens, only gB antigen showed response to the antibody in 10/23 [43.5%] antigen-positive patients and 9/46 antigen-negative patients and the difference was statistically significant [p = 0.048]. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in antibody responses between the antigen-positive and antigen-negative KR to the other four CMV peptide antigens [p > 0.05]. However, among the antigen-positive KR there was only 1 patient who had antibodies to both pp150 and pp28 antigen, while among the antigen-negative KR, 22 of 46 [47.8%] had the antibodies [p < 0.001]. The findings suggest that the combined presence of antibodies against the pp150 and pp28 antigens may indicate a lower risk of CMV reactivation after kidney transplantation

Cancer mortality in Basrah

This study aimed at determining the burden of cancer as a cause of death in Basrah over three selected years; namely 1989, 1997 and 2005. All death registries in Basrah city, Districts and sub districts were used as sources of information for data compiling. Every death recorded in the three years was checked for cause of death and all cases for which any type of cancer written as the cause of death were identified. Data related to age, sex, place of residence, type of cancer, place where death was certified and year of death were obtained. In addition, the numbers of total deaths due to all causes in each year were also recorded. The results indicate a total of 297 deaths in 1989, 499 deaths in 1997 and 649 deaths in 2005 could be attributed to cancer. Regarding sex distribution of deaths, slightly more deaths occurred in males [53.8%] than in females [46.2%] with significant rise of cancer in females in 2005. Cancer as a cause of death represents about 5% of all deaths with some degree of increase in 1997 and 2005 as compared to 1989, but no major change in the cancer specific death rates among different years. Geographically, the distribution shows significant but not substantial variation with years. The mean age of dead persons was similar in the three years. The leading cancer deaths were those of lung, urinary bladder, blood, breast, lymphomas and CNS. The overall risk of death is not much different in different years except for a slight increase in 1997 and 2005 in comparison to 1989. Most cancers show stable or slightly fluctuating level of risk of death with time. Slight rise in the risk of death may be noticed in cancers of CNS, blood [leukemia], Bones, lymphomas and Colon-rectum. The researchers suggest that the stable level of mortality could reflect some improvement in treatment based on early diagnosis of many cancers. A study covering at least ten years is highly recommended to establish more sound time trend in cancer mortality

Conradi's syndrome in the UAE-a case report

This paper presents a case report of Conradi's Syndrome, a rare muscoloskeletal disorder recently seen at Dubai Hospital. The patient, a four-month-old baby girl presented with typical clinical signs such as bilateral dense cataract, craniofacial anomalies, musculoskeletal anomalies and abnormal skin findings. The radiological findings on skeletal survery were pathognomonic. A brief discussion also follows on the types of Conradi's syndrome and its management

Quantitative analysis of some pharmaceutical veterinary formulations using acceptor reagents

Three acceptor reagents used for the determation of some anthelmintics and antibiotics that are used in veterinary medication. The reagents are 7, 7, 8, 8-tetracyanoquinodimethane [TCNQ], 2, 3-dichioro-5, 6-dicyano-benzoquinone [DDQ] and 2, 4, 5, 7-teranitro-9-fluorenone [TNF]. Drugs analyzed are piperazine hexahydrate, tetrmisole hydrochloride, metroindazole, erythromycin, lincomycin hydrochloride, triacetyloendomycin and tylosin tartrate. The drugs were determined either in powder forms or in pharmaceutical formulations. The sensitivities of the methods were discussed and the results compared with the B.P. 1980 or with colorimetric method