Background: Neonatal herpes is a potentially devastating infection that results from acquisition of herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 or 2 from the maternal genital tract at the time of vaginal delivery. Current guidelines recommend (1) cesarean delivery if maternal genital HSV lesions are present at the time of labor and (2) antiviral suppressive therapy for women with known genital herpes to decrease HSV shedding from the genital tract at the time of vaginal delivery. However, most neonatal infections occur in infants born to women without a history of genital HSV, making current prevention efforts ineffective for this group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Most postcesarean infections are caused by anaerobic bacteria. Oxidative killing, an important defense against surgical infections, depends on the oxygen level in contaminated tissue. Among patients undergoing colorectal surgery, perioperative supplemental oxygen decreased infection rates by 50%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: The unique noninvasive MRI technique was used to assess trabecular microarchitecture at multiple skeletal sites in 91 postmenopausal osteoporotic women receiving nasal spray salmon calcitonin (CT-NS) or placebo over 2 years. In the distal radius and lower trochanter of the hip, individuals treated with CT-NS exhibited significant preservation of trabecular bone microarchitecture compared with placebo, where significant deterioration was shown. MRI analyses of os calcis or microCT/histomorphometric analyses of bone biopsies did not reveal consistent differences in architecture between CT-NS and placebo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Endocrinol Metab
October 2003
Thrittene is a recently described peptide with a sequence homologous with somatostatin-28 ((1-13)) but is produced independent of the preprosomatostatin gene. It is localized in epithelial cells in stomach and gut mucosal crypts and in neuronal cell bodies in the myenteric plexus and enteric axons. It is also present in human plasma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPreprosomatostatin is a gene expressed ubiquitously among vertebrates, and at least two duplications of this gene have occurred during evolution. Somatostatin-28 (S-28) and somatostatin-14 (S-14), C-terminal products of prosomatostatin (ProS), are differentially expressed in mammalian neurons, D cells, and enterocytes. One pathway for the generation of S-14 entails the excision of Arg13-Lys14 in S-28, leading to equivalent amounts of S-28((1-12)).
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