A case report of a rare and challenging gangrenous splenic flexure volvulus in a pregnant patient.

Introduction: Splenic flexure volvulus is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction and is uncommonly encountered in young patients from developed countries.

Presentation Of Case: This report details a challenging case of a gangrenous large bowel volvulus in a 25 year old woman 20 weeks pregnant, highlighting the diagnostic and operative challenges that this rare clinical situation presents. After urgent MRI confirming a splenic flexure volvulus, an emergency open left hemicolectomy and end colostomy was performed.

Domain antibodies: proteins for therapy.

Occurring naturally in "heavy chain" immunoglobulins from camels, and now produced in fully human form, domain antibodies (dAbs) are the smallest known antigen-binding fragments of antibodies, ranging from 11 kDa to 15 kDa. dAbs are the robust variable regions of the heavy and light chains of immunoglobulins (VH and VL respectively). They are highly expressed in microbial cell culture, show favourable biophysical properties including solubility and temperature stability, and are well suited to selection and affinity maturation by in vitro selection systems such as phage display.

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 and interleukin-6 in haemolytic uraemic syndrome.

Objective: Because haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) is an important cause of renal dysfunction in children, the availability of prognostic markers of disease severity could assist in identifying those at risk of developing long-term sequelae. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that plasma levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in children at the time of diagnosis of HUS would predict renal function outcome in terms of glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

Methodology: Fourteen children suffering from diarrhoeal HUS were studied.