Outbreak of Acute Fulminant Myocarditis in Children in Campania Region, Italy: A Case Series.

Acute fulminant myocarditis is a rare event in children, accounting for about 10% of all cases of acute myocarditis. Its lack of specific onset patterns and unpredictable evolution make diagnosis and prompt treatment challenging. We observed six cases of fulminant myocarditis admitted to our Pediatric Emergency Unit (Campania region, Sothern Italy) within a very short timeframe (50 days, from July to September 2024).

Femto-assisted versus conventional phacoemulsification differently impact on choroid structure after surgery.

Purpose: To report potential choroidal changes in eyes undergoing femtosecond laser cataract surgery (FLACS) and phacoemulsification surgery (PCS) by OCT.

Methods: The patients were images by means Spectral Domain OCT imaging with EDI technology which may obtain OCT image. We exported a single EDI-OCT scan passing through the fovea and then it was imported into ImageJ program to perform a quantitative analysis.

Atrial Fibrillation and Mitral Regurgitation: Clinical Performance of Direct Oral Anticoagulants in a Real-World Setting.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is frequently present in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR). Currently, there is a lack of real-world evidence specifically addressing the clinical performance of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with AF and concomitant MR. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy and safety profile of DOACs therapy in patients with AF and MR.

Evolving concepts in the pathophysiology of biliary lipid secretion.

Secretion of biliary cholesterol and phosphatidylcholine is a complex process essentially involving lipid supply to the canalicular membrane from either preformed or neosynthetic hepatic sources, and the detergent action of bile salts. Previous research has shown that an altered secretion of biliary lipids and/or bile salts firmly disposes to gallstone formation, and may also be involved in the pathogenesis of cholestasis. Recently, attention has been turned to the molecular and genetic factors underlying biliary lipid secretion, and this approach has provided a significant body of new data among which: 1.

Enhancement of mdr2 gene transcription mediates the biliary transfer of phosphatidylcholine supplied by an increased biosynthesis in the pravastatin-treated rat.

An increase of biliary lipid secretion is known to occur in the rat under sustained administration of statin-type 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG) coenzyme A (CoA) reductase inhibitors. The present study has addressed critical mechanisms of hepatic lipid synthesis and phosphatidylcholine (PC) biliary transport in the rat fed with a 0.075% pravastatin diet for 3 weeks.

Enhancement of fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis accompanied by enhanced biliary but not very-low-density lipoprotein lipid secretion following sustained pravastatin blockade of hydroxymethyl glutaryl coenzyme A reductase in rat liver.

A 3-week treatment of rats with pravastatin (PV) augmented biliary cholesterol and phospholipid output 3.6- and 2.2-fold over controls, while bile acid (BA) output and kinetics were unchanged.

Biliary excretion of chylomicron remnant cholesterol in the rat: responses to the expansion of their plasma pool and promoting role of stimulated bile-acid synthesis.

1. Chylomicron remnants, the intermediate intestinal lipoproteins carrying the bulk of dietary cholesterol, are actively taken up and degraded in the hepatocytes, releasing cholesterol which can be excreted in bile. To study this pathway, a mass of remnants, leading to a consistent rise in hepatic cholesterol, was administered as an intravenous bolus in rats with chronic bile fistula equilibrated by water, electrolyte and taurocholate infusions, and changes in biliary lipids and bile acids were evaluated for up to 24 h in comparison with baseline.

Capillary blood flow to the skin of forearm in cirrhosis.

In liver cirrhosis a hyperkinetic circulatory state is frequently observed as a consequence of an arterial or even a venous peripheral vasodilatation with secondary increase in cardiac output. Indirect evidence suggests that, in liver disease, the manifestation of warm hands, capillary pulsation, or palmar erythema may also relate to such a state by way of an increased skin blood flow. The purpose of the present study has been to directly assess capillary skin blood flow in liver disease through the clearance of a locally injected radioactive substance.

Effect of cholestyramine treatment on biliary lipid secretion rates in normolipidaemic men.

This study was designed to clarify the effect of bile acid sequestrant treatment on the total biliary output rates of cholesterol, phospholipids and bile acids in man, and to correlate these changes with the alterations in plasma lipoprotein levels. For this purpose nine healthy, normolipidaemic men were treated with 16 g of cholestyramine daily over a period of 4 weeks, and the biliary secretion rates were measured by a duodenal perfusion technique. Resin therapy, which profoundly increases de novo synthesis of bile acids, resulted in a lowering of total plasma cholesterol levels, mainly due to a 35% reduction in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and in a 33% increase in plasma triglyceride levels, reflecting enhanced very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) triglyceride concentrations; high density lipoprotein (HDL) levels did not change.

Modulation of biliary lipid secretion by forskolin and cyclic AMP analogues.

Exposure of isolated perfused rat livers to either 100 microM-forskolin, a potent activator of adenylate cyclase, or to 0.5 mM-concentrations of the cAMP analogues chlorophenylthio cAMP (CPTcAMP), dibutyryl cAMP (dbcAMP) and 8-bromo cAMP (8BrcAMP), to provoke increases in intracellular concentrations of cAMP, resulted in marked changes in bile volume and composition. Bile flow reached a peak after 10 min, before declining towards control levels, and an increase in several secretory parameters was also observed at this time.

[Physiopathology of iron metabolism and hemochromatosis: interrelationships, assessment and pathogenesis of iron overload, screening].

Fundamental aspects of iron metabolism relate to the dynamic processes of metal plasma transport as well as cell storage and efflux. Transferrin not only carries iron in the plasma but also delivers it to the various cells by binding to a diffuse specific cell receptor; it also acts by chelating cell iron. Ferritin co-operates by storing iron in the cell.

Pulse-chase studies of the synthesis of apolipoprotein B in a human hepatoma cell line, Hep G2.

We have used pulse-chase methodology to study the synthesis of apolipoprotein B in a human hepatoma-derived cell line, the Hep G2 cells. A 2-min pulse with [35S]methionine was followed by a chase period varying from 5-90 min. A protein of large molecular mass (estimated molecular mass: 312 +/- 41 kDa, mean +/- SD, n = 8) could be immunoprecipitated from the cells at all chase periods between 5 min and 60 min with both monoclonal antibodies to a narrow density cut of the low density lipoprotein LDL-2 (density: 1.

A high recovery method for concentrating microgram quantities of protein from large volumes of solution.

A method is presented for the recovery of 40-80% of the protein from a 1 microgram/ml solution. The final protein pellet is free of detergent and other ionic compounds and is thus compatible with any denaturing solution. The primary structure of the protein is unaffected by the procedure, making the final pellet an ideal sample for any analytical procedure to determine protein structure.

High affinity binding of chylomicron remnants to rat liver plasma membranes.

The binding of chylomicron remnants rat liver plasma membranes was studied. Liver membranes bound up to 8 times more remnants than they bound chylomicrons. The remnant particle appeared to bind to the membrane as a unit.

Urinary excretion of D-glucaric acid, total glucuronic acid and total porphyrins in porphyria cutanea tarda.

The urinary levels of D-glucaric acid, which is an index of hepatic microsome induction, and the excretion of glucuronic acid and porphyrins were measured in nine patients with Porphyria Cutanea Tarda (PCT) and twelve normal controls. The excretion of D-glucaric acid and glucuronic acid were respectively 3.5 and two times higher in PCT patients compared to controls.

Comparison of the effects of cholic acid and chenic acid feeding on rates of cholesterol synthesis in the liver of the rat.

To compare the ability of cholic acid and chenic acid to suppress cholesterol synthesis in the liver, these two bile acids were fed in varying amounts to rats for either 66 hr or 6 weeks. In both instances there were significant changes in the bile acid pool in the small intestine and suppression of the rate of cholesterol synthesis in the liver. The administration of cholic acid, however, consistently produced greater suppression of the rate of cholesterol synthesis from octanoate or of microsomal HMG CoA reductase activity than did the administration of a similar amount of chenic acid.

Influence of fructose feeding on individual enzymic reactions in the formation and metabolism of bile acids in rat liver homogenates.

1. Rats were maintained for 10 d on a semi-synthetic diet containing 700 g glucose or 700 g fructose/kg. Individual enzymic reactions in bile acid synthesis and metabolism were studied by measuring the 7alpha-hydroxylation of [4-14C]cholesterol, and 12alpha-hydroxylation of 7alpha-[6beta-3H]hydroxy-4-cholesten-3-one, the 26-hydroxylation of 5beta-[7beta-3H]cholestane-3alpha,7alpha-diol and the 6beta-hydroxylation of [3H]lithocholic acid in liver homogenates.

The metabolism of steroids in the fatty liver induced by orotic acid feeding.

1. The metabolism of 4-[4-14C]androstene-3,17-dione, 4-[4-14C]pregnene-3,20-dione, 5alpha-[4-14C]androstane-3alpha,17beta-diol, [4-14C]cholesterol, 7alpha-hydroxy-4-[6beta-3H]cholesten-3-one, 5beta-[7beta-3H]cholestane-3alpha,7alpha-diol and [3H]lithocholic acid was studied in the microsomal fraction of livers from control and orotic acid-treated male rats. 2.

Dissociation of beta-hydroxy-beta-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity from the overall rate of cholesterol synthesis in the liver following the intravenous administration of lipid.

After the intravenous administration to the intact rat of triglyceride carried in either intestinal lipoproteins or in an artificial fat emulsion, the enzymatic activities of microsomal beta-hydroxy-beta-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity in the liver assayed in vitro became markedly elevated. This elevation of enzyme activity was not associated with a corresponding change in the overall rate of cholesterol synthesis in the rat liver slice as measured by the incorporation of either [3H]water or [1-14C]octanoate into nonsaponifiable lipids or into digitonin-precipitable sterols. The degree of dissociation of hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity from the overall rate of cholesterol synthesis correlated closely with the amount of lipid administered to the animal, the level of circulating lipids, and the level of ketone synthesis manifest in the liver cell suggesting that this phenomenon might be the consequence of a detergent effect of elevated cellular levels of fatty acids.

ABO blood groups and serum gastrin.

Serum gastrin concentrations were measured in 75 subjects of blood group O and in 75 subjects of other blood groups. Gastrinaemia both basally and following stimulation by glycine drink or by insulin hypoglycaemia did not show any statistically significant differenc in blood group O people as compared to subjects of other blood groups. It is concluded that the claimed relationship between blood group O and parietal cell hyperplasia cannot be considered as secondary to a relationship between blood group O and increased gastrin-producting G cell mass.