Renal transplants increase in size and function in keeping with compensatory renal hypertrophy.

Aim: To evaluate changes in allograft kidney length in renal transplant recipients and the relationship with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).

Methods: This single-centre retrospective study of renal transplant recipients was conducted at Flinders Medical Centre (FMC) from January 2007 to June 2020. Donor and recipient details, renal allograft length from transplant ultrasounds at 0, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months were collected.

Gadolinium-Induced Acute Graft Pancreatitis in a Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplant Recipient.

Gadolinium-induced acute pancreatitis is a rare phenomenon associated with the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents. Only five cases of gadolinium-induced acute pancreatitis have been reported worldwide in patients with native pancreas and none with a pancreatic graft. We present a 32-year-old woman with prior history of simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant who presented with generalized abdominal pain associated with systemic inflammatory response syndrome requiring admission to the intensive care unit.

Examination of neuroinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 beta expression in the medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus for the paradoxical effects of reward and aversion induced by morphine.

A growing body of evidence has shown that abused drugs could simultaneously induce the paradoxical effect-reward and aversion. Moreover, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala, and hippocampus were involved in this paradoxical effect by abused drugs. However, no research examined whether neuroinflammatory changes in the mPFC [including cingulate cortex area 1 (Cg1); prelimbic cortex (PrL); infralimbic cortex (IL)], basolateral amygdala, and hippocampus [e.

Does Routine Triple-Time-Point FDG PET/CT Imaging Improve the Detection of Liver Metastases?

Prior reports have demonstrated the improved ability of delayed fluorine-18 (F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging (dual-time-point imaging) in detecting more patients with liver metastases. To evaluate whether routine triple-time-point FDG PET/CT imaging improves the detection of liver metastasis not visualized on initial imaging. To our knowledge, no triple-time-point imaging has been reported.

Pigmented villous nodular synovitis mimicking metastases on F-FDG PET/CT in a patient with rectal mucosal melanoma: a case report.

Background: Mucosal melanomas are rare and have a high potential for metastasizing. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice for single distant metastases. Malignant melanoma usually shows the highest uptake of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG).

Effects of Internet popular opinion leaders (iPOL) among Internet-using men who have sex with men.

Background: The Internet has become a popular venue for facilitating sex networking for men who have sex with men (MSM).

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet popular opinion leaders (iPOL) in disseminating information about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), increasing the frequency of HIV testing, and reducing risky behaviors among MSM in Taiwan.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control website for comparison was used to estimate the effectiveness of iPOL.

Attachment and invasion of Neisseria meningitidis to host cells is related to surface hydrophobicity, bacterial cell size and capsule.

We compared exemplar strains from two hypervirulent clonal complexes, strain NMB-CDC from ST-8/11 cc and strain MC58 from ST-32/269 cc, in host cell attachment and invasion. Strain NMB-CDC attached to and invaded host cells at a significantly greater frequency than strain MC58. Type IV pili retained the primary role for initial attachment to host cells for both isolates regardless of pilin class and glycosylation pattern.

The analysis of inconsistencies between cytogenetic annotations and sequence mapping by defining the imprecision zones of cytogenetic banding.

Motivation: In current databases, there are many genes with inconsistent mapping positions between their cytogenetic annotations and sequence map positions. However, not all inconsistencies are the same. Some of them may be problematic which should be corrected in the future; while others may result from the imprecise nature of chromosomal banding which may be tolerable.

Development of an electronic medical report delivery system to 3G GSM mobile (cellular) phones for a medical imaging department.

Medical practice is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity in collaborative and cooperative patient care. Fast and effective communication between medical practitioners can improve patient care. In medical imaging, the fast delivery of medical reports to referring medical practitioners is a major component of cooperative patient care.

Phosphoinositide-3-kinase-dependent, MyD88-independent induction of CC-type chemokines characterizes the macrophage response to Toxoplasma gondii strains with high virulence.

Chemokines play an important role in inflammation and infection due to their ability to recruit cells of innate and adaptive immunity. Here we examined mouse macrophage chemokine responses during intracellular infections with high- and low-virulence Toxoplasma gondii strains. The high-virulence type I strain RH induced a large panel of CC-type chemokines, whereas responses elicited by strains PTG (type II) and M7741 (type III) were much weaker.

Bioenergy based Medical Diagnostic Application based on Gas Discharge Visualization.

Allopathic medical diagnostic divides the human body into physiological and organ systems and analyzes the condition of these systems individually based on their anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and pathology. However, without analysis of intricate signals between these systems, it is difficult to provide a deeper insight of a patient's health, therefore reliable detection of diseases. This purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the possibilities of providing holistic medical screening through measurement of bioenergy fields which have both biophysical and biophysic bearings.

Expression and purification of a trivalent pertussis toxin-diphtheria toxin-tetanus toxin fusion protein in Escherichia coli.

Pertussis toxoid, diphtheria toxoid, and tetanus toxoid are key components of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccines. The efficacy of the vaccines is well documented, however, the vaccines are expensive partly because the antigens are derived from three different bacteria. In this study, a fusion protein (PDT) composed of the immunoprotective S1 fragment of pertussis toxin, the full-length non-toxic diphtheria toxin, and fragment C of tetanus toxin was constructed via genetic means.

Toxoplasma gondii genotype determines MyD88-dependent signaling in infected macrophages.

Infection of mouse macrophages with Toxoplasma gondii elicits MAPK activation and IL-12 production, but host cell signaling pathways have not been clearly delineated. Here, we compared macrophage signaling in response to high virulence type I (RH) vs low virulence type II (ME49) strain infection. Tachyzoites of both strains induced p38 MAPK-dependent macrophage IL-12 release, although ME49 elicited 2- to 3-fold more cytokine than RH.

Screening for Toxoplasma gondii-regulated transcriptional responses in lipopolysaccharide-activated macrophages.

Toxoplasma gondii-infected macrophages are blocked in production of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-12 (IL-12) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) upon activation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Here, we used pathway-focused cDNA arrays to identify additional T. gondii-regulated transcriptional responses.

A precise and scalable method for querying genes in chromosomal banding regions based on cytogenetic annotations.

Motivation: Staining the human metaphase chromosomes reveals characteristic banding patterns known as cytogenetic bands or cytobands. Using technologies based on metaphase chromosomes, researchers have accumulated much knowledge about the correlations between human diseases and specific cytoband aberrations, indicating the presence of disease-associated genes in those bands. With the progress of human genome project and techniques such as fluorescent in situ hybridization, many genes have been assigned to the cytobands and annotated in public databases, making it possible to find all genes in the disease-related cytobands through database queries.

Expression and immunogenicity of a recombinant diphtheria toxin fragment A in Streptococcus gordonii.

A nontoxic mutant diphtheria toxin fragment A (DTA) was genetically fused in single, double, or triple copy to the major surface protein antigen P1 (SpaP) and surface expressed in Streptococcus gordonii DL-1. The expression was verified by Western immunoblotting. Mouse antisera raised against the recombinant S.

Efficacy of recombinant sialoglycoprotease in protection of cattle against pneumonic challenge with Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica A1.

Secreted recombinant sialoglycoprotease fusion protein (Gcp-F) of Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica A1 was examined for its ability to protect cattle from experimental challenge with M. haemolytica A1. Five M.