Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor intravitreal therapy for retinopathy of prematurity.

Retinopathy of prematurity treatment modalities have expanded over the years, from cryotherapy to laser therapy and now, anti-vascular endothelial factor (VEGF) therapy by intravitreal injection. Use of anti-VEGF treatment varies regionally and depends on multiple factors including severity and progression of ROP, availability of alternative treatments, experience of the local ophthalmologists, medical status of the infant, and expectations for long-term follow-up. While the advantages and disadvantages of anti-VEGF intravitreal treatment on the eye are relatively well-described, few studies provide information about potential long-term systemic effects of this treatment, which is known to transiently reduce systemic VEGF concentrations.

Trauma intensive care in a terror-ravaged, resource-constrained setting: Are we prepared for the emerging challenge?

INTRODUCTION: Trauma in developing countries has been on the increase, a situation perpetuated by rising road traffic collisions, terrorism and firearms proliferation. Some of the victims of trauma are left with life threatening conditions requiring urgent surgical intervention and/or intensive care. The objectives of this study were to determine the pattern of major trauma needing intensive care in the region, and to determine the outcome of major trauma admitted to intensive care unit. METHODS: A six-year retrospective cohort study of trauma patients needing intensive care, set in the Intensive Care Unit of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, North-West Nigeria. Subjects were major trauma patients admitted into the intensive care unit of the institution, identified via an admission register kept in the unit. The main outcomes measured were length of stay and mortality. RESULTS: Trauma admissions represented 25.1% of the all intensive care admissions. Severe traumatic brain injury accounted for 32.1% of the trauma admissions, while burns accounted for 23.2%. Of the injuries, 15.5% were sustained in bomb blasts, and 8.3% were firearm injuries. The majority of the patients stayed for no more than seven days from admission. Burns patients had the worst outcomes, with 82.1% mortality. CONCLUSION: Major trauma contributes significantly to local intensive care admissions, with terrorism- related trauma now an emerging challenging cause of major trauma in our region. The observed poor outcomes in this study are a reflection of the quality of available intensive care, and lends credence to the concept of appropriately resourced, specialised intensive care units for optimisation of care.

HAXPES beamline PES-BL14 at the Indus-2 synchrotron radiation source.

The Hard X-ray Photo-Electron Spectroscopy (HAXPES) beamline (PES-BL14), installed at the 1.5 T bending-magnet port at the Indian synchrotron (Indus-2), is now available to users. The beamline can be used for X-ray photo-emission electron spectroscopy measurements on solid samples. The PES beamline has an excitation energy range from 3 keV to 15 keV for increased bulk sensitivity. An in-house-developed double-crystal monochromator [Si (111)] and a platinum-coated X-ray mirror are used for the beam monochromatization and manipulation, respectively. This beamline is equipped with a high-energy (up to 15 keV) high-resolution (meV) hemispherical analyzer with a microchannel plate and CCD detector system with SpecsLab Prodigy and CasaXPS software. Additional user facilities include a thin-film laboratory for sample preparation and a workstation for on-site data processing. In this article, the design details of the beamline, other facilities and some recent scientific results are described.

Lack of correlation between the maximum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity of blood lymphocytes and plasma LDL concentration in normal men.

1. Measurements were made of the maximal low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activities of blood lymphocytes from 81 healthy men with a wide range of plasma LDL cholesterol concentrations (1.45-7.55 mmol/l). 2. Receptor activity was quantified by measuring the degradation of 125I-labelled LDL (10 micrograms of protein/ml) to trichloroacetic acid-soluble material during a 6 h incubation, after derepression of the lymphocytes for 72 h in lipoprotein-deficient medium. 3. No significant correlation existed between LDL receptor activity in vitro and plasma LDL cholesterol concentration in vivo (r = -0.08).

Myelomatosis with type III hyperlipoproteinemia: clinical and metabolic studies.

We investigated the metabolism of intermediate-density lipoproteins (IDL [1.006 to 1.019 g per milliliter]) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL [1.019 to 1.063 g per milliliter]) in two men with Type III hyperlipoproteinemia associated with myelomatosis. In vivo kinetic studies using radiolabeled autologous lipoproteins demonstrated a greatly reduced fractional catabolic rate of IDL, relative to control values (patients vs. normal, 0.006 and 0.025 per hour vs. 0.20 +/- 0.08 per hour [mean +/- S.E.M]) and a greatly prolonged IDL-to-LDL conversion time (45 and 17 hours vs. 5.4 +/- 1.6 hours). In studies in vitro, LDL from both patients failed to bind to the LDL receptor of normal blood lymphocytes, whereas LDL from subjects with familial Type III hyperlipoproteinemia bound normally to the receptor. In one patient immunoglobulin was shown to be associated with IDL and LDL. Thus, hyperlipoproteinemia reflected an impaired metabolism of IDL, probably secondary to the binding of immunoglobulin to the lipoproteins. A similar impairment of receptor-mediated LDL catabolism did not elevate the plasma LDL concentration because of the low IDL-to-LDL conversion rate.

Heritability of the low density lipoprotein receptor activity of human blood mononuclear cells: studies in normolipidaemic adult male twins.

1. The concordance of low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity of blood mononuclear cells was examined in 26 pairs of monozygotic and 17 pairs of dizygotic normolipidaemic young adult male twins. 2. Receptor activity was quantified as the degradation of 125I-labelled LDL during a 6 h incubation, after derepression of the cells for 72 h in lipoprotein-deficient medium. 3. The total variance of receptor activity was similar in the two groups of twins. In contrast, within-pair variance was five times greater in dizygotic twins than in monozygotic twins (P less than 0.001). 4. Estimates of heritability, mostly based on the intra-class correlation coefficients (monozygotic, r = 0.83; dizygotic, r = 0.39), ranged from 0.72 to 1.05. 5. These results suggest that the maximal LDL receptor activity of peripheral cells in normolipidaemic subjects is largely genetically determined.