Increased cardiac microvascular permeability and activation of cardiac endothelial nitric oxide synthase in high tidal volume ventilation-induced lung injury

None

Background: Positive pressure ventilation with large tidal volumes has been shown to cause lung injury via the serine/threonine kinase-protein kinase B (Akt) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-pathways. However, the effects of high tidal volume (VT) ventilation on the heart are unclear. Objectives: Evaluate the effect of VT ventilation on the cardiac vascular permeability and intracellular Akt and eNOS signaling pathway. Methods: C57BL/6 and Akt knock-out (heterozygotes, +/−) mice were exposed to high VT (30 mL/kg) mechanical ventilation with room air for one and/or five hours. Results: High VT ventilation increased cardiac microvascular permeability and eNOS phosphorylation in a time-dependent manner. Serum cardiac troponin I was increased after one hour of high VT ventilation. Cardiac Akt phosphorylation was accentuated after one hour and attenuated after five hours of high VT ventilation. Pharmacological inhibition of Akt with LY294002 and high VT ventilation of Akt+/− mice attenuated cardiac Akt phosphorylation, but not eNOS phosphorylation. Conclusion: High VT ventilation increased cardiac myocardial injury, microvascular permeability, and eNOS phosphorylation. Involvement of cardiac Akt in high VT ventilation was transient.

Shiguelose em criancas internadas no Hospital Central de Maputo; MocambiqueJose A. Valdivia; Benedita Silva; Migdalia Hung; Elena Folgosa

From April to July 1993; Maputo City suffered an epidemic of dysentery. We analysed stool samples from 142 consecutive children hospitalized with acute bloody diarrhoea in the pediatric infectious diseases ward of Maputo Central Hospital. The samples were analysed for known pathogenic microbial organisms. 74 (52.1) were male and 68 (47.9) female; the mean age was 2.62 years. Shigella dysenteriae type-1 was isolated in 59 (41.5) cases. The probability of isolation of shigella dysenteriae was greater when the evolution time of the illness was equal to or less than five days and the number of daily stools was six or greater at the time of sample collection. For the diagnosis of shigellosis; the presence of macroscopic blood in liquid stools showed a sensitivity of 86.2; a specificity of 82.9; a positive predictive value of 78.1; and a negative predictive value of 89.5. All Shigella spisollated were sensitive to nalidixic acid; cephalothin; kanamycin and gentamicin and resistant to tetracycline; trimethoprim; chloramphenicol; ampicillin; sulfurisoxazole; cotrimoxazole and erythromycin. There was a statistical association (p0.05) between malaria due to plasmodium falciparum and the presence of macroscopic blood in the stools

Colera na Cidade e Provincia de Maputo : resultados laboratoriais das amostras analizadas no periodo de Junho de 1991 a Junho de 1992

Foi efectuado um estudo retrospectivo das amostras recebidas no Laboratorio de Microbiologia da Faculdade de Medicina no periodo compreendido entre Junho de 1991 e Junho de 1992; para confirmacao laboratorial do diagnostico clinico de colera. De um total de 2823 amostras analisadas; provenientes de igual numero de casos; 1399(49;5) proveniente da cidade de Maputoe 1424(50;4) da Provincia de Maputo. Corresponderam a individuos do sexo maculino; 1494(52.9) e ao sexo feminino; 1329 (47.1) resultaram positivas; 952(33.7) amostras das quais; 856(89.9) corresponderam ao serotipo Inaba e 96(10.1) ao Ogawa. Todas as estirpes isoladas foram biotipo El Tor e sensiveis in vitro a Tetraciclina; Doxiciclina; Sulfadiazina e Cloranfenicol. Em ambos os locais de estudo; as amostras positivas foram mais frequentes na estacao quente que na fria (pO.0001); e nos individuos do sexo masculino no grupo eterio de mais de 16 anos (p

Cromoblastomicose do membro inferior : um caso tratado cirurgicamente com sucesso

Uma mocambicana de 35 anos apresentou-se com duas neoformacoes cutaneas vegetantes localizadas no membro inferior esquerdo. As neoformacoes - de superficie irregular; sangrando facilmente ao toque e simulando uma neplasia maligna - foram excisadas cirurgicamente e o seu exame histologico e microbiologico revelou tratar-se de cromoblastomicose (por Fonsecaea pedrosoi); uma micose profunda relativamente rara