Metabolism of aceclofenac in cattle to vulture-killing diclofenac.

The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac is highly toxic to Gyps vultures, and its recent widespread use in South Asia caused catastrophic declines in at least 3 scavenging raptors. The manufacture of veterinary formulations of diclofenac has since been banned across the region with mixed success. However, at least 12 other NSAIDs are available for veterinary use in South Asia. Aceclofenac is one of these compounds, and it is known to metabolize into diclofenac in some mammal species. The metabolic pathway of aceclofenac in cattle, the primary food of vultures in South Asia, is unknown. We gave 6 cattle the recommended dose of aceclofenac (2 mg/kg), collected blood thereafter at intervals for up to 12 h, and used liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in a pharmacokinetic analysis of aceclofenac and diclofenac in the plasma. Nearly all the aceclofenac administered to the cattle was very rapidly metabolized into diclofenac. At 2 h, half the aceclofenac had been converted into diclofenac, and at 12 h four-fifths of the aceclofenac had been converted into diclofenac. Therefore, administering aceclofenac to livestock poses the same risk to vultures as administering diclofenac to livestock. This, coupled with the risk that aceclofenac may replace diclofenac in the veterinary market, points to the need for an immediate ban on all aceclofenac formulations that can be used to treat livestock. Without such a ban, the recovery of vultures across South Asia will not be successful.

[Kawasaki disease and its ocular manifestations]. / Kawasakiho choroba a její ocní príznaky.

The article describes one of the occurring types of vasculitis in children. Discussing the essential manifestations of the disease it focuses on ocular symptoms as one of the major criteria. The diagnosis is often done on the basis of a clinical description further specified by laboratory and instrument techniques. Awareness of the symptoms typical of the disease, frequently identifiable even macroscopically, facilitates the early diagnosis. A differential diagnosis of febrile responses may include a wide range of possibilities considered including faulty conclusions consequently causing a delay in therapy, which may be fatal. With the Kawasaki disease a bilateral injection of bulbar conjunctiva is the first signal of objectification followed by frequent acute bilateral iridocyclitis with delayed development and prolonged duration. Thus the problem of a red eye and febrile responses may suggest the above-mentioned serious diagnosis, which is at present, however, well-curable and recognisable with stress put on the time factor.