Thyroid function among HIV/AIDS patients on highly active anti-retroviral therapy.

Objectives: To assess the thyroid function among Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients on anti-retroviral drugs: stavudine, lamivudine and nevirapine and to establish the prevalence of non-thyroid illness.

Design: Laboratory based comparative cross-sectional study.

Setting: Comprehensive care clinics at KNH and Mbagathi District Hospital.

Reduced immune complex binding capacity and increased complement susceptibility of red cells from children with severe malaria-associated anemia.

Plasmodium falciparum malaria causes 1-2 million deaths per year. Most deaths occur as a result of complications such as severe anemia and cerebral malaria (CM) (coma). Red cells of children with severe malaria-associated anemia (SMA) have acquired deficiencies in the complement regulatory proteins complement receptor 1 (CR1, CD35) and decay accelerating factor (DAF, CD55).

Progesterone, estradiol and their receptors in leiomyomata and the adjacent normal myometria of black Kenyan women.

The contents of progesterone and oestrogen, and their respective receptors in uterine leiomyomata and adjacent normal myometrial tissue in indigenous black women in Kenya were studied. A random selection of twenty women undergoing hysterectomy for uterine fibroids at Kenyatta National Hospital was used for the studies. The myometria contained higher levels of E(2 ) (181% : P < 0.

The pesticide heptachlor affects steroid hormone secretion in isolated follicular and luteal cells of rat.

Heptachlor, a chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide, suppresses the production of progesterone and estradiol in the female rat in vivo or in isolated ovaries in vitro. In this study the effect of heptachlor on steroid hormone production by isolated rat luteal and follicular cells, in the presence of two precursor hormones was investigated. Ovaries were isolated from anesthetized mature normocyclic virgin rats (3 to 4 months old), under sterile conditions.

Thyroid status and adenosine triphosphatase activity in experimental Trypanosoma congolense infection in rabbits.

The effect of trypanosome infection on the plasma levels and ratios of tri-iodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) as well as the activity of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were investigated. Three groups of sexually mature white New Zealand rabbits were used. Group 1 consisted of the normal non-infected rabbits, group 2 were experimentally infected with Trypanosoma congolense and group 3 were infected but given replacement doses of thyroxine.