Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension After Liver Transplantation.

Pulmonary hypertension is one of the problems that can be encountered before liver transplantation. It is not expected in cases with no additional disease in postoperative period. Herein, we report on a 43-year-old woman who developed idiopathic pulmonary hypertension in the early postoperative period. Further investigation both pathologically and clinically is needed in patients undergoing living donor liver transplantation that may help to solve the problems such as pulmonary arterial hypertension before it occurs and manage complex hemodynamic changes successfully in the future.

Bioremoval of Reactive Blue 220 by Gonium sp. biomass.

Gonium sp. was tested for the bioremoval of Reactive Blue 220 (RB220) dye at different conditions such as pH values, initial dye concentrations and biomass concentrations to evaluate the possibility of using this microalga in treating wastewaters. According to the data obtained from the experiments, microalgae removed RB220 with the highest yield (54.2%) at pH 8, and could treat the applied dye with the highest removal percentage as 84.2% at the lowest dye concentration (26.2 mg/L RB220). Increasing Gonium sp. biomass concentration from 0.21 to 0.53 g/L stimulated RB220 removal rate from 87.7% to 96.8%. The present study clearly indicated that Gonium sp. biomass could be used as a bioremediation biosorbent in treating RB220 dye in the related wastewaters.

Treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus with microfracture technique and postoperative hyaluronan injection.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to report the outcomes of the treatment of talar osteochondral lesions with arthroscopic microfracture technique and postoperative intra-articular hyaluronan injection. METHOD: Fifty-seven patients (29 men, 28 women) with osteochondral lesions of the talus were included in this prospective randomized clinical study between the years 2003 and 2009. The patients were treated with arthroscopic debridement and microfracture technique. Randomly selected 41 patients were injected intra-articular hyaluronan (injection group). The remaining 16 patients did not receive postoperative injection (non-injection group). Assessment of the pain and functional outcomes was performed using the Freiburg and AOFAS ankle/hindfoot scoring systems. RESULTS: In the injection group, the mean postoperative Freiburg functional and pain scores were significantly higher compared to preoperative functional and pain scores (P < 0.001). Similarly, for the patients in non-injection group, the mean postoperative Freiburg functional and pain scores were significantly higher compared to preoperative functional and pain scores (P < 0.001). The AOFAS functional and pain scores of the patients in the injection group were significantly higher (P < 0.001) postoperatively compared to preoperative scores. Scoring the patients in the non-injection group according to AOFAS system also revealed significantly higher (P < 0.001) postoperative functional and pain scores over preoperative scores. The increase in the postoperative scores was found to be significantly higher in the injection group compared to non-injection group in both Freiburg and AOFAS systems (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus using microfracture technique significantly improved functional and pain scores postoperatively. Additional treatment with intra-articular hyaluronan injection as an adjunct to microfracture technique may offer better clinical outcomes over microfracture technique alone. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Randomized, controlled trial, Level I.

Comparison of copper(II) biosorptive properties of live and treated Candida sp.

Biosorption of copper(II) ions from aqueous solutions was studied to compare the binding capacities of untreated (live) or treated (dried, autoclaved, perchloric acid (HClO4)-washed, ethanol-treated, formaldehyde-treated) Candida sp. Due to the ion exchange nature of metal biosorption, copper(II) uptake was strongly affected by the solution pH and optimum adsorption pH value was determined as 5.0 for all the live and treated Candida sp. At the optimal conditions, metal ion uptake increased with increasing initial copper(II) concentration up to 300 mg l-1 for all the biomass types. It is found that all the treatment methods used to kill the yeast (except for formaldehyde treatment) increased the copper(II) biosorption capacity of Candida cells. The results also indicated that copper(II) biosorption by live, autoclaved and formaldehyde-treated yeasts was consisted of an initial, rapid surface binding of copper(II) followed by a second, slower intracellular uptake of copper(II), but copper(II) uptake by the other treated yeasts took place only via surface binding. Both the Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption models were suitable for describing the short-term biosorption of copper(II) by all the untreated and treated Candida.

Bioaccumulation of copper(II) and nickel(II) by the non-adapted and adapted growing Candida sp.

The effect of copper(II) and nickel(II) ions on the growth and bioaccumulation properties of non-adapted and adapted growing cells of a non-pathogenic Candida sp. has been tested under laboratory conditions as a function of initial pH and initial metal ion concentration. Optimum pH value for maximum metal ion accumulation was determined as 4.0 for both the metal ions. Although the copper(II) adapted Candida sp. was capable of removing of copper(II) with the maximum specific uptake capacity of 36.9 mg g-1 at 783.6 mg dm-3 initial copper(II) concentration, non-adapted Candida was only capable of bioaccumulating copper(II) with 23.1 mg g-1 maximum uptake capacity from aqueous solution at 578.7 mg dm-3 initial copper(II) concentration. The non-adapted and nickel(II) adapted Candida cells also showed the highest nickel(II) uptake capacities (46.8 and 30.8 mg g-1, respectively) at 321.5 and 300.6 mg dm-3 initial nickel(II) concentrations, respectively. For both the non-adapted and nickel(II) adapted Candida sp., the growth of cells was totally inhibited by 500 mg dm-3 of nickel(II) ions. The results also indicated that copper(II) adapted Candida sp. has been found to be more efficient to accumulate larger amounts of copper(II) than that of nickel(II) bioaccumulated by nickel(II) adapted Candida at higher initial metal ion concentrations without loosing its biological activity.