[Screening and healthcare for pregnant women with psycho-social vulnerability : A French national study].

Introduction: Psycho-social vulnerabilities are a medical risk factor for both fetus and mother. Association between socioeconomic status and prenatal follow-up has been well established and inadequate follow-up is associated with higher morbidity and mortality in women in unfavorable situations.

Objective: The objective is to identify screening strategies and to describe existing systems for pregnant women in psycho-social vulnerability in French maternity hospitals.

[Heart failure due to primary hypothyroidism. Case report and review].

Background: There are well-recognized relationships between thyroid hormones, heart and peripheral vascular system. Thyroid hormones have relevant actions on the heart and circulation, generate multiple effects including hemodynamic changes and exert mediated effects on cardiac cells through gene expression.

Clinical Case: We present a 64-year-old woman with diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy with reduced ejection fraction, in whom coronary disease was thought of as the most probable etiology by clinical antecedents but in the evolution, other possible etiologies were to appear.

[Endomyocardial fibrosis associated to Antiphospholipid syndrome. Case report and review].

A 29-year-old man with a history of seizures, was admitted due to an episode of unconsciousness recovered and hypertension with renal disfunction. The electrocardiogram mimicked a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, but, by Doppler echocardiography, this was discarded because it suggested endomyocardial fibrosis which was confirmed by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging with late enhancement. Since the episode of unconsciousness, brain imaging studies were performed showing vascular sequelae and microangiopathic lesions.

The elucidation of the structure of Thermotoga maritima peptidoglycan reveals two novel types of cross-link.

Thermotoga maritima is a Gram-negative, hyperthermophilic bacterium whose peptidoglycan contains comparable amounts of L- and D-lysine. We have determined the fine structure of this cell-wall polymer. The muropeptides resulting from the digestion of peptidoglycan by mutanolysin were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography and identified by amino acid analysis after acid hydrolysis, dinitrophenylation, enzymatic determination of the configuration of the chiral amino acids, and mass spectrometry.

Substrate-induced inactivation of the Escherichia coli AmiD N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase highlights a new strategy to inhibit this class of enzyme.

In the eubacterial cell, the peptidoglycan is perpetually hydrolyzed throughout the cell cycle by different enzymes such as lytic transglycosylases, endopeptidases, and amidases. In Escherichia coli, four N-acetylmuramoyl-l-alanine amidases, AmiA, -B, -C, and -D, are present in the periplasm. AmiA, -B, and -C are soluble enzymes, whereas AmiD is a lipoprotein anchored in the outer membrane.