Ultrastructural mitochondrial alterations in equine myopathies of unknown origin.

BACKGROUND: Very few mitochondrial myopathies have been described in horses. OBJECTIVE: To examine the ultrastructure of muscle mitochondria in equine cases of myopathy of unknown origin. MATERIALS & METHODS: Biopsies of vastus lateralis of the Musculus quadriceps femoris were taken predominantly immediately post mortem and processed for transmission electron microscopy. As a result, electron micrographs of 90 horses in total were available for analysis comprising 4 control horses, 16 horses suffering from myopathy and 70 otherwise diseased horses. RESULTS: Following a thorough clinical and laboratory work-up, four out of five patients that did not fit into the usual algorithm to detect known causes of myopathy showed ultrastructural mitochondrial alterations. Small mitochondria with zones with complete disruption of cristae associated with lactic acidemia were detected in a 17-year-old pony mare, extremely long and slender mitochondria with longitudinal cristae in a 5-year-old Quarter horse stallion, a mixture of irregular extremely large mitochondria (measuring 2500 by 800 nm) next to smaller ones in an 8-year-old Hanoverian mare and round mitochondria with only few cristae in a 11-year-old pony gelding. It remains uncertain whether the subsarcolemmal mitochondrial accumulations observed in the fifth patient have any pathological significance. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrastructural alterations in mitochondria were detected in at least four horses. To conclude that these are due to mitochondrial dysfuntions, biochemical tests should be performed. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The possibility of a mitochondrial myopathy should be included in the differential diagnosis of muscle weakness.

The federated healthcare record to support shared diabetes care.

In this paper the conception of the federated healthcare record server to support shared diabetes care is described. Business process modelling is applied to describe the shared care for diabetes patients. Typical dialogues between the different users (patient, internist, GPs, and diabetic nurses) are analysed and described in terms of use cases. Next to this modelling three incremental steps are defined to realise the record server based upon results of standardisation. It proves to be successful to design and build this record server on modern technologies like CORBA and JAVA.

Supporting shared care for diabetes patients. The synapses solution.

In this paper we discuss the construction of a Federated Health Care Record server within the context of the European R&D project Synapses. We describe the system using the five ODP viewpoints. From an analysis of the business process to be supported by the distributed system (the shared care for diabetes patients) requirements for the server are derived.

Development of homologous radioimmunoassays for equine growth hormone and equine prolactin and their application to the detection of circulating levels of hormone in horse plasma.

Highly purified and well-characterised preparations of equine prolactin and growth hormone from equine pituitary glands were employed to set up highly sensitive and specific homologous radioimmunoassays (RIA) for the measurement of hormone in horse plasma. The limit of sensitivity of the GH RIA was 1.2 ng/ml with mean intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation (CV) of 6.6 and 10%, respectively. The sensitivity of the equine prolactin (ePRL) RIA was 0.5 ng/ml with mean intra and inter-assay CV of 9.1 and 15.6%, respectively. Dose-response curves of a crude pituitary gland extract and plasma samples collected from a mare and foal were parallel to the standards and the PRL RIA was clinically validated by administration of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH). Plasma samples taken at 15 min intervals over 24 h from lactating mares gave 24 h mean GH values in the range 5.5 to 7.95 ng/ml. Large intermittent elevations of GH activity were detected. The mean 24 h PRL concentrations were between 3.2-10.4 ng/ml in the lactating animals, with higher concentrations earlier in lactation. Long episodic bursts of PRL were detected.

The effect of inhalation flow on the performance of a dry powder inhalation system.

Dry powder inhalation systems are composed of a small amount of active ingredients and a larger amount of filler. The drug particles are believed to be bound by the filler crystals. The complexes are too large to be inhaled and need to be separated before they enter the lungs. This is done by the air patients inhale through the inhaler. Asthmatics can show low inhalation flows and the performance of a dry powder inhaler at low flows was investigated. It was shown, that small particles (less than 5 microns) separate swiftly at low flows and larger particles (greater than 5 microns) will need higher flows. The conclusion is that dry powder inhalation preparation do not show a simple separation pattern.