Genetic diversity and structure of the coffee leaf rust fungus Hemileia vastatrix across different coffee management systems in Ethiopia.

Although coffee leaf rust (CLR), caused by Hemileia vastatrix, poses an increasing threat to coffee production in Ethiopia, little is known regarding its genetic diversity and structure and how these are affected by coffee management. Here, we used genetic fingerprinting based on sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers to genotype H. vastatrix samples from different coffee shrubs, across 40 sites, covering four coffee production systems (forest coffee, semi plantation coffee, home garden coffee, and plantation coffee) and different altitudes in Ethiopia.

Impact of environmental nitrogen pollution on pollen allergy: A scoping review.

The current rise in the prevalence of allergies to aeroallergens is incompletely understood and attributed to interactions with environmental changes and lifestyle changes. Environmental nitrogen pollution might be a potential driver of this increasing prevalence. While the ecological impact of excessive nitrogen pollution has been widely studied and is relatively well understood, its indirect effect on human allergies is not well documented.

Both organic and integrated pest management of apple orchards maintain soil health as compared to a semi-natural reference system.

Growing concerns about the negative environmental impacts of agriculture have resulted in the increasing adoption of farming systems that try to reconcile crop production with environmental sustainability, such as organic farming. As organic farming refrains from using synthetic inputs, it heavenly relies on maintaining soil health. However, it is still poorly understood how organic management performs in terms of maintaining soil health in real commercial and heterogeneous farm settings as compared to conventional management, and especially as compared to a natural reference system.

Dialysability of gadoteric acid in patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis.

Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the dialysability of gadoteric acid in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring hemodialysis. Gadoteric acid is used for magnetic resonance imaging. It is cleared from the blood exclusively by glomerular filtration.

Pseudo-pulmonary embolism as a sign of acute heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in hemodialysis patients: safety of resuming heparin after disappearance of HIT antibodies.

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a syndrome caused by platelet-activating antibodies that recognize complexes of platelet factor 4 (PF4) and heparin. Thrombocytopenia is the most common clinical feature of HIT. HIT can be considered as a hypercoagulable state, with a high risk of thrombosis.

Incidence and prognosis of intraabdominal hypertension in a mixed population of critically ill patients: a multiple-center epidemiological study.

Objective: Intraabdominal hypertension is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in surgical and trauma patients. The aim of this study was to assess, in a mixed population of critically ill patients, whether intraabdominal pressure at admission was an independent predictor for mortality and to evaluate the effects of intraabdominal hypertension on organ functions.

Design: Multiple-center, prospective epidemiologic study.

Re-evaluation and modification of the Stuivenberg Hospital Acute Renal Failure (SHARF) scoring system for the prognosis of acute renal failure: an independent multicentre, prospective study.

Background: A prognostic scoring system for hospital mortality in acute renal failure (Stuivenberg Hospital Acute Renal Failure, SHARF score) was developed in a single-centre study. The scoring system consists of two scores, for the time of diagnosis of acute renal failure (ARF) and for 48 h later, each originally based on four parameters (age, serum albumin, prothrombin time and heart failure). The scoring system was now tested and adapted in a prospective study.

Plasma exchange-associated immunoglobulin m-negative hantavirus disease after a camping holiday in southern france.

A 37-year-old Belgian patient presented with acute nephropathia epidemica (NE) shortly after a camping holiday in southern France. Unusual symptoms were initial noncardiogenic lung involvement, followed by severe acute renal failure, acute acalculous cholecystitis, presence of immunoblasts in the bone marrow, and hemolytic anemia, presenting as hemolytic uremic syndrome. Positive immunoglobulin (Ig) A and rising IgG titers against Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) were detected, but IgM remained negative on days 8 and 20.

Prevalence of intra-abdominal hypertension in critically ill patients: a multicentre epidemiological study.

Objective: Although intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) can cause dysfunction of several organs and raise mortality, little information is available on the incidence and risk factors for IAH in critically ill patients. This study assessed the prevalence of IAH and its risk factors in a mixed population of intensive care patients.

Design: A multicentre, prospective 1-day point-prevalence epidemiological study conducted in 13 ICUs of six countries.

Abdominal compartment syndrome related to noninvasive ventilation.

Objective: To study the effects of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) on intra-abdominal pressure.

Design And Setting: Single case report from a tertiary teaching hospital.

Patients And Methods: A 65-year-old man who experienced a sudden respiratory and cardiovascular collapse during NIPPV.

Dialysis.

Willem Kolff designed his "kunstmatige nier" in the early 1940s using spare parts obtained from the Wehrmacht; with it, he treated 14 patients with acute renal failure. Although there has been a tremendous improvement in the design and construction of dialysis machines, the basic concepts are unchanged. In this review we show that dialysis dose and adequacy can now be predicted using simple clinical methodology.

Prognostic value of a new scoring system for hospital mortality in acute renal failure.

Aim And Methods: In order to define a prognostic scoring system for hospital mortality of individual patients with acute renal failure (ARF), data were collected prospectively in a single centre study (Stuivenberg General Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium) on 197 adult patients consecutively admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) during one year. Mean age was 69.8 (+/- 14.

Comparison of different routes of administration of nadroparin in hemodialysis.

Aim: In an open, crossover, randomized study in hemodialysis patients, we investigated possible differences of the effect of the low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) nadroparin/fraxiparine in relation to the route of administration.

Patients And Methods: The effect of nadroparin, administered by the venous line or by the arterial line after priming of the extracorporeal circuit with a part of the total dose administered, was compared with administration of the same dose by the arterial line as recommended by the manufacturer. Twelve stable, chronic hemodialysis patients were studied during 3 dialysis sessions for each treatment option.

Shoshin syndrome: two case reports representing opposite ends of the same disease spectrum.

Thiamine deficiency can have cardiovascular and neurological manifestations. Cardiac beriberi is classically thought to represent a high-output state with oliguria and lactic acidosis. The condition can, however, also present itself with a low cardiac output and fulminant vascular collapse, or as an acute fatal form, causing sudden death, without clear-cut signs of cardiomegaly.

Hypertension and accelerated atherosclerosis in endstage renal disease.

In patients with chronic renal failure cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are higher than in non-uremic controls. Chronic renal failure influences a number of factors that promote atherogenesis: blood pressure, nitric oxide activity, advanced glycosylation, lipid metabolism, oxidant stress, homocysteine levels, glucose metabolism and PTH. How these factors are influenced by chronic renal failure, how they interrelate and how they promote atherogenesis is still debated.

Relapse of Wegener's granulomatosis presenting as a destructive urethritis and penile ulceration.

Non-renal urogenital Wegener's granulomatosis is considered to be rare. Generally it occurs in a setting of concurrent multisystem disease or in patients already diagnosed as having Wegener's granulomatosis. We present a patient with a penile ulceration related to a destructive urethritis, as presentation of a relapse of Wegener's granulomatosis.

Drug-induced spongiform leucoencephalopathy, a case report with review of the literature.

A nineteen year-old girl developed rhabdomyolysis and central pyrexia after the ingestion of multiple drugs: amphetamines, benzodiazepines, methadone, ethanol, and cocaine. On admission, the patient was deeply comatose and during the hospitalisation asymmetrical spastic quadriparesis was noted. Brain biopsy was diagnostic of spongiform leucoencephalopathy.

Importance of volume factors in dialysis related hypertension.

Objective: To evaluate the relation between total body water and dialysis related hypertension.

Patients And Methods: Thirty stable chronic hemodialysis patients were studied. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure on the day before dialysis, blood pressure before and after dialysis, weight gain, ultrafiltration and total body water were determined.

Treatment of severe thallium intoxication.

We report a successfully treated case of severe thallium intoxication. In spite of very high serum thallium (5,240 micrograms/L), symptomatology was minor and recovery complete. Prussian Blue was administered, diuresis was enhanced by intravenous fluids and a prolonged hemodialysis was started early.