Viral Communities of Shark Bay Modern Stromatolites.

Single stranded DNA viruses have been previously shown to populate the oceans on a global scale, and are endemic in microbialites of both marine and freshwater systems. We undertook for the first time direct viral metagenomic shotgun sequencing to explore the diversity of viruses in the modern stromatolites of Shark Bay Australia. The data indicate that Shark Bay marine stromatolites have similar diversity of ssDNA viruses to that of Highbourne Cay, Bahamas. ssDNA viruses in cluster uniquely in Shark Bay and Highbourne Cay, potentially due to enrichment by phi29-mediated amplification bias. Further, pyrosequencing data was assembled from the Shark Bay systems into two putative viral genomes that are related to Genomoviridae family of ssDNA viruses. In addition, the cellular fraction was shown to be enriched for antiviral defense genes including CRISPR-Cas, BREX (bacteriophage exclusion), and DISARM (defense island system associated with restriction-modification), a potentially novel finding for these systems. This is the first evidence for viruses in the Shark Bay stromatolites, and these viruses may play key roles in modulating microbial diversity as well as potentially impacting ecosystem function through infection and the recycling of key nutrients.

Severe Acute Cardiopulmonary Failure Related to Gadobutrol Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Reaction: Successful Resuscitation With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Nonanaphylactic noncardiogenic pulmonary edema leading to cardiorespiratory arrest related to the magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent gadobutrol has rarely been reported in the literature. Rarer is the association of hypokalemia with acidosis. We report 2 patients who had severe pulmonary edema associated with the use of gadobutrol contrast in the absence of other inciting agents or events. These cases were unique not only for their rare and severe presentations but also because they exemplified the increasing role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in resuscitation. Emergency extracorporeal membrane oxygenation resuscitation can be rapidly initiated and successful in the setting of a well-organized workflow, and it is a viable alternative and helps improve patient outcome in cases refractory to conventional resuscitative measures.

An overview of vascular closure devices: what every radiologist should know.

Haemostatic devices can be categorised according to their mechanism of action into three main types; namely pressure devices, topical haemostatic pads and vascular closure devices (VCD). Of these three categories, it is the development of VCDs that revolutionised management of endovascular procedures. Currently available VCDs fall into three major classes, those that use a collagen plug, those that use clips and those that perform suture closure at the arteriotomy site. This article provides a comprehensive review of the all three classes with examples of commercially available devices.

Discrepancy in reporting among specialist registrars and the role of a paediatric neuroradiologist in reporting paediatric CT head examinations.

AIM: To evaluate the discrepancy rate among specialist registrars (SPR) to assess whether seniority had a bearing on the discrepancy rate. To investigate which were the commonly missed abnormalities and the consequences for teaching purposes. To investigate the role of a specialist consultant neuroradiologist in reporting paediatric head computed tomography examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out over a 9-month period at the regional paediatric hospital during which time 270 CT head examinations were reported. Reporting in the department is carried out by one of the five general paediatric radiologists (GR) and also a specialist paediatric neuroradiologist (NR). The NR was considered the reference standard, who corroborated in areas of discrepancy with a second senior NR for this study. Of the 270 examinations, 260 were reported by the paediatric NR, 160 were reported by the SPR, GR, and NR, and 51 were reported by an SPR and the NR. In addition, four were reported by the GR and the NR, 45 by the NR only, seven by the GR only, and three cases were reported by the GR and an SPR. The discrepancy rates were calculated for GR versus NR, and SPR versus NR. All the discrepancies were re-evaluated by a second senior NR and confirmed in all cases. The reports of the SPR were further scrutinized. The trainees of training years 1-3 were considered junior and 4-5 were considered senior. RESULTS: There was a discrepancy in 26/164 cases (15.9%) reported by the GR and NR. There was a discrepancy in 59/211 cases (28%) reported by an SPR and NR. The chi-squared test (two-sided) showed a significant difference (p=0.005) between the two groups. There was a discrepancy in 36/118 cases (30.5%) reported by the junior SPR and NR. There was a discrepancy in 23/93 cases (24.7%) reported by a senior SPR and NR. The chi-squared test (two-sided) showed a non-significant difference (p=0.353) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The performance of the SPR was considered to be significantly different than the GR in this study. The year of training did not have a statistically significant bearing on the discrepancy rates. This study has been useful in guiding SPR with regards to paediatric CT head examination reporting. The NR played an important role, particularly in picking up subtle fractures and congenital abnormalities, which were missed by both the SPR and GR.

Renal allograft C4d deposition in Chinese: Hong Kong perspective.

BACKGROUND: Acute rejection constitutes a significant proportion of renal allograft loss. Peritubular capillary deposition of C4d has been recognized as the footprint of humoral alloimmunity and proven to be a sensitive and specific marker for humoral rejection in the appropriate clinical context. Its presence in indication biopsies is the most important independent risk factor for graft failure. Data are, however, scarce among Chinese subjects. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all renal graft biopsies performed from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2006 for unexplained acute renal dysfunction or delayed graft function. Renal outcomes were assessed at the time of renal biopsy and at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year afterwards. Survival was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Multivariate analysis was used to determine if C4d positivity is an independent risk factor for poor renal outcome. RESULTS: Fifty-two biopsies were included, of which 16 were positive for peritubular capillary C4d. Peritubular capillary C4d was associated with lower glomerular filtration rate and higher serum creatinine at 6 and 12 months after renal biopsies. The C4d-positive group fares worse in terms of death-censored graft failure, doubling of serum creatinine and reaching 50% of glomerular filtration rate at the end of the study. Peritubular capillary C4d deposition was the only significant risk factor that predicts graft failure in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Our findings confirmed the independent prognostic value of peritubular capillary C4d staining on renal allograft survival in Chinese.

Plexiform neurofibroma of the oesophagus: a mimicker of malignancy.

We report the first case of a plexiform neurofibroma of the oesophagus, presenting with dysphagia in a 67-year-old man known to suffer from von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis. The clinical symptoms and radiological findings mimicked malignancy, and raised considerable concern. Numerous investigations failed to elucidate the benign nature of the condition. The diagnosis was finally achieved at surgery and the patient was successfully treated by oesophageal resection. Plexiform neurofibromas, though only found in 20-30% of affected individuals are pathognomonic of von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis. This report highlights the tendency of plexiform neurofibromas to grow extensively and encase surrounding structures, thereby mimicking a neoplastic process.

Brain injury and violent crime.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that TBI is associated with violent crime, the prevalence and characteristics of traumatic brain injury (TBI) were compared between men convicted of domestic violence and a matched comparison group. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Participants were 20 African American men convicted of domestic violence and 20 African American men without criminal convictions matched for age and socioeconomic status. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding health and behaviour history. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: More than half of the participants in both groups had sustained a TBI, although injuries in the offender group were significantly more severe. There were significantly more reports of problems with anger management in the offender group. CONCLUSIONS: Published epidemiological data regarding TBI may underestimate the prevalence in urban populations, which may have confounded earlier studies of TBI and domestic violence. The reported prevalence in this sample of defendants suggests implications for the justice system.

MHCWeb: converting a WWW database into a knowledge-based collaborative environment.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is useful for distributing scientific data. Most existing web data resources organize their information either in structured flat files or relational databases with basic retrieval capabilities. For databases with one or a few simple relations, these approaches are successful, but they can be cumbersome when there is a data model involving multiple relations between complex data. We believe that knowledge-based resources offer a solution in these cases. Knowledge bases have explicit declarations of the concepts in the domain, along with the relations between them. They are usually organized hierarchically, and provide a global data model with a controlled vocabulary. We have created the OWEB architecture for building online scientific data resources using knowledge bases. OWEB provides a shell for structuring data, providing secure and shared access, and creating computational modules for processing and displaying data. In this paper, we describe the translation of the online immunological database MHCPEP into an OWEB system called MHCWeb. This effort involved building a conceptual model for the data, creating a controlled terminology for the legal values for different types of data, and then translating the original data into the new structure. The OWEB environment allows for flexible access to the data by both users and computer programs.

Galenia africana L. poisoning in sheep and goats: hepatic and cardiac changes.

Lesions in 4 field cases (3 sheep and 1 goat) of 'waterpens' or water belly, caused by the plant Galenia africana, are described. The clinical pathological and pathological findings in 7 sheep which were drenched with toxic plant material are also reported. Inappetence, ruminal stasis and apathy as well as tachycardia were noticed in some of the sheep towards the end of the dosing period. The most prominent clinical pathological change in the experimental animals was an increase in the activity of gamma-glutamyltransferase which in some animals occurred within days after commencement of dosing. This indicates liver involvement in the early stages of the intoxication, and at this stage no heart abnormalities were detected clinically, clinical pathologically or with cardiac function tests. Decrease in cardiac function were recorded in 2 sheep towards the end of the dosing period. Liver and heart lesions were present in all the animals. In some cases hepatic changes were mild and characterized by dilation of central veins and sinusoids and, less commonly, centrilobular fibrosis. More advanced lesions included centrilobular fibrosis and bridging between neighbouring lobules with adjacent areas of coagulative necrosis, lysis and ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes. Myocardial changes occurred in the free ventricular walls and interventricular septum and comprised hypertrophy of myocytes with consequent degeneration and necrosis and fibrosis. In cases of longer duration myocytes were diffusely atrophic with scattered groups of remaining hypertrophic fibres. The clinical pathological and pathological features suggest that G. africana is primarily hepatotoxic with myocardial involvement occurring only in the terminal stages of the intoxication.

Status of the genus Cyrnea (Nematoda: Spiruroidea) in wild turkeys from the southeastern United States.

Two species of Cyrnea are reported from 706 wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) from 25 localities in 9 southeastern states. Cyrnea (Cyrnea) neeli sp. n. in birds from Alabama and Florida is differentiated primarily by distal processes of the left spicule and spicule lengths. Specimens from wild turkeys previously reported as C. eurycerca are identified as C. coloni. The configuration of caudal papillae of C. colini is redescribed. Neither species occurred in birds from montainous regions, and C. neeli sp. n. was restricted to Florida and southern Alabama. Poults less than 1-month old were not infected. Infections peaked in early fall and then declined rapidly.