ABSTRACT
Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is caused by Babesia caballi and Theileria equi infection. We investigated antigen and antibody of EP in horses in the Republic of Korea during 2016-2017. Antigen and antibody of T. equi was detected 0.06% (1/1,650). Phylogenetic analysis of 18S rRNA revealed that the T. equi was highly homologous with the strains from China, Mongolia, and Spain. Two Theileria spp. were also detected and highly homologous with T. buffeli, T. luwehshuni, and T. orientalis.
ABSTRACT
Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is caused by Babesia caballi and Theileria equi infection. We investigated antigen and antibody of EP in horses in the Republic of Korea during 2016-2017. Antigen and antibody of T. equi was detected 0.06% (1/1,650). Phylogenetic analysis of 18S rRNA revealed that the T. equi was highly homologous with the strains from China, Mongolia, and Spain. Two Theileria spp. were also detected and highly homologous with T. buffeli, T. luwehshuni, and T. orientalis.
ABSTRACT
The outbreak of human toxoplasmosis can be attributed to ingestion of food contaminated with Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasmosis recently increased in domestic and stray dogs and cats. It prompted studies on the zoonotic infectious diseases transmitted via these animals. Sero- and antigen prevalences of T. gondii in dogs and cats were surveyed using ELISA and PCR, and B1 gene phylogeny was analyzed in this study. Toxoplasmosis antibodies were measured on sera of 403 stray cats, 947 stray dogs, 909 domestic cats, and 2,412 domestic dogs collected at nationwide regions, Korea from 2017 to 2019. In addition, whole blood, feces, and tissue samples were also collected from stray cats (1,392), stray dogs (686), domestic cats (3,040), and domestic dogs (1,974), and T. gondii-specific B1 gene PCR was performed. Antibody prevalence of stray cats, stray dogs, domestic cats, and domestic dogs were 14.1%, 5.6%, 2.3%, and 0.04%, respectively. Antigen prevalence of these animals was 0.5%, 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.4%, respectively. Stray cats revealed the highest infection rate of toxoplasmosis, followed by stray dogs, domestic cats, and domestic dogs. B1 gene positives were 5 of stray cats, and identified to high/moderate pathogenic Type I/III group. These findings enforce that preventive hygienic measure should be strengthened at One Health level in dogs and cats, domestic and stray, to minimize human toxoplasmosis infections.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To measure choroidal thickness in healthy myopic eyes and to evaluate the relationship among choroidal thickness and refractive power and axial length. METHODS: Eighty healthy myopic eyes were evaluated in the present study. The refractive power was measured using an automatic refractor and the axial length using A-scan. The subjects were divided into two groups based on refractive power (> or =-6.0 D and or =25 mm and <25 mm). The choroidal thickness was measured using spectral domain (SD) optical coherence tomography (3-dimensional [3D] OCT-2000, Software Version 6.01; Topcon Corp., Tokyo, Japan), and the statistical relationship between the two groups was analyzed. RESULTS: A statistically significant difference was found in choroidal thickness according to refractive power and axial length between the two groups (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Refractive power and axial length had a significant relation to choroidal thickness measured by OCT. When excluding eyes with pathologic myopia, high myopia in healthy eyes may cause choroidal thinning.
Subject(s)
Choroid , Eye , Myopia , Tokyo , Tomography, Optical CoherenceABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The present study is a case report of 2 patients (4 eyes) whose symptoms subsided after corneal tattooing over the iridotomy site for persistent and excessive glare, which developed after iridotomy for phakic intraocular lens implantation. CASE SUMMARY: Two patients developed excessive glare symptoms after receiving iridotomy as a pre-procedure for phakic intraocular lens implantation. Case 1 and Case 2 showed persistent glare symptoms over a period of 6 months. Corneal tattooing was performed on the patients by applying tissue dye to the corneal stroma over the iridotomy site. The symptom was evaluated by comparison of glare scores from 0 to 10 after the procedure with a score of 10 prior to the procedure. After corneal tattooing, patient 1 reported a score of 4 and patient 2 reported a score of 3, showing significant symptom improvements without additional complications. CONCLUSIONS: Corneal tattooing at the peripheral cornea in front of the iridotomy site for patients with persistent glare symptoms after prophylactic iridotomy was shown to be effective.
Subject(s)
Humans , Cornea , Corneal Stroma , Glare , Phakic Intraocular Lenses , TattooingABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bcl-xL and bax act as checkpoints of the apoptotic cell death. Although apoptosis is one of major mechanism of cell death in renal allografts inflicted by various events, the role of bcl-xL and bax in kidney transplantation has not been characterized yet. We therefore studied intragraft expression of bcl-x and bax and its clinical significance in renal transplantation. METHODS: We localized the expression of bcl-x, bcl-xS and bax proteins by immunohistochemistry, and measured the magnitude of the gene transcription of bax and bcl-xL by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in 37 implantation allograft biopsies(18 from 9 cadaveric donors, 19 from living donors), and 17 biopsies from patients undergoing acute rejection(AR). RESULTS: Immunoreactivities for bax, bcl-x, and bcl-xS were observed in tubular epithelial cells but not in glomeruli and vessels in implantation and AR biopsies. The infiltrating lymphocytes in AR expressed bax and bcl-xS but not for bcl-x. Comparing the intragraft gene transcript level of each allograft of a pair of recipients, who received graft from the same cadaveric donor, showed a higher bcl-xL in the patients with a higher concentration of postoperative 7th day serum creatinine. The transcript level of bcl-xL was higher in the Banff grade II and III AR biopsies than in the borderline or grade I AR, and also higher in steroid-resistant AR than in steroid-responsive patients. CONCLUSION: These results implicated the apoptotic death of infiltrating lymphocytes during rejection, and the compensatory up-regulation of bcl-xL in response to various apoptotic stimuli occurring in renal allografts.
Subject(s)
Humans , Allografts , Apoptosis , bcl-2-Associated X Protein , Biopsy , Cadaver , Cell Death , Creatinine , Epithelial Cells , Gene Expression , Immunohistochemistry , Kidney Transplantation , Lymphocytes , Tissue Donors , Transplantation , Transplants , Up-RegulationABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bcl-xL and bax act as checkpoints of the apoptotic cell death. Although apoptosis is one of major mechanism of cell death in renal allografts inflicted by various events, the role of bcl-xL and bax in kidney transplantation has not been characterized yet. We therefore studied intragraft expression of bcl-x and bax and its clinical significance in renal transplantation. METHODS: We localized the expression of bcl-x, bcl-xS and bax proteins by immunohistochemistry, and measured the magnitude of the gene transcription of bax and bcl-xL by semi-quantitative RT-PCR in 37 implantation allograft biopsies(18 from 9 cadaveric donors, 19 from living donors), and 17 biopsies from patients undergoing acute rejection(AR). RESULTS: Immunoreactivities for bax, bcl-x, and bcl-xS were observed in tubular epithelial cells but not in glomeruli and vessels in implantation and AR biopsies. The infiltrating lymphocytes in AR expressed bax and bcl-xS but not for bcl-x. Comparing the intragraft gene transcript level of each allograft of a pair of recipients, who received graft from the same cadaveric donor, showed a higher bcl-xL in the patients with a higher concentration of postoperative 7th day serum creatinine. The transcript level of bcl-xL was higher in the Banff grade II and III AR biopsies than in the borderline or grade I AR, and also higher in steroid-resistant AR than in steroid-responsive patients. CONCLUSION: These results implicated the apoptotic death of infiltrating lymphocytes during rejection, and the compensatory up-regulation of bcl-xL in response to various apoptotic stimuli occurring in renal allografts.
Subject(s)
Humans , Allografts , Apoptosis , bcl-2-Associated X Protein , Biopsy , Cadaver , Cell Death , Creatinine , Epithelial Cells , Gene Expression , Immunohistochemistry , Kidney Transplantation , Lymphocytes , Tissue Donors , Transplantation , Transplants , Up-RegulationABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The Wada test is not yet standardized among epilepsy surgery centers, which makes it difficult to dis-cern the differences between its results. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of memory stimulus types in the Wada test and the methods of score measurement of results. METHODS: We examined the Wada test in 59 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy who had language dominancy in left hemispheres. They underwent surgical treat-ment and were seizure-free for at least until the 1-year follow up. The Wada test was done on the patients using three different protocols during the presurgical evaluations: 1) protocol A; sixteen cards displaying eight line drawings of common objects and eight words, 13 patients, 2) protocol B; eight line drawings of abstract figures, 14 patients, and 3) protocol C; four line drawings of common objects and four line drawings of abstract figures, 32 patients. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients with RTL (right temporal lobectomy) and 26 patients with LTL (left temporal lobectomy) were not significantly different in demographic and disease characteristics such as age and sex, age at onset, risk factors before 2 years old, epilepsy duration, and Korean Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale- IQ scores. Patients with RTL rec-ognized significantly more words and line drawings of common objects with a right injection than those with a left injection. Patients with LTL recognized significantly more line drawings of abstract figures and common objects fol-lowing a left injection versus a right injection. Correct rates obtained through discriminant function analysis (100% (A), 64% (B) and 84% (C) were higher than that obtained through cutoff criteria (memory asymmetry scores (3)25%: 82% (A), 62% (B) and 56% (C) ). CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that line drawings of common objects as Wada memory stimuli are more useful for the lateralization of the epileptogenic hemisphere than line drawings of abstract figures and words. Discriminant function analysis is also a more effective score measurement than cutoff criteria.
Subject(s)
Adult , Child, Preschool , Humans , Epilepsy , Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe , Follow-Up Studies , Intelligence , Memory , Risk Factors , Temporal LobeABSTRACT
Sleep disturbance and restless legs syndrome (RLS) among uremic patients is known to be high, but data on the prevalence, clinical significance, and causative factors are limited. A semiquantitative sleep and RLS questionnaire was distributed to 62 chronic hemodialysis(HD) patients. 74.5N had sleep complaints and frequent awakening was the most frequent specific sleep complaints followed by daytime sleepiness. Presence of diabetes mellitus(DM), RLS, depres- sion, high CRP level, low intact parathyroid hormone level, low subjective global assessment score, and short HD duration were associated with more sleep complaints. 58.3N had RLS and presence of DM, low serum albumin level were also associated with more severe RLS. But Kt/V, protein catabolic rate, hematocrit, plasma bicarbonate level, use of erythropoietin and sleep medication were not associated with sleep complaints and RLS. Sleep problems and RLS are comrnon in HD patients and seem to be associated with malnutrition. Presence of DM, de- pression, and RLS are likely to contribute the high prevalence of sleep disturbance.
Subject(s)
Humans , Erythropoietin , Hematocrit , Malnutrition , Parathyroid Hormone , Plasma , Prevalence , Renal Dialysis , Restless Legs Syndrome , Serum Albumin , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Emphysematous pyelonephritis is an uncommon, but life-threatening necrotizing inflammation of renal parenchyme and perinephric tissue by gas-forming organisms. This disease is encountered mainly in patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and/or urinary tract obstruction etc. Though the pathogenesis of this diseases is still poorly understood, radiographic demonstration of gas shadow in renal parenchyme and peri-nephric tissue establishes the diagnosis of emphysematous pyelonephritis. The identification of this finding has been believed to consider incision and drainage or nephrectomy in addition to medical treatment, because of high mortality rate of this disease in spite of vigorous medical management. We report two cases of emphysematous pyelonephritis complicated in 62-year-old female and 48- year-old male patients with diabetes mellitus. Nephrectomies were not performed because of bilateral emphysematous pyelonephritis in one patient and of refusal of nephrectomy by the other patient. But patients were recovered completely on medical management.