Severe dengue in the intensive care unit.

Dengue fever is considered the most prolific vector-borne disease in the world, with its transmission rate increasing more than eight times in the last two decades. While most cases present mild to moderate symptoms, 5% of patients can develop severe disease. Although the mechanisms are yet not fully comprehended, immune-mediated activation leading to excessive cytokine expression is suggested as a cause of the two main findings in critical patients: increased vascular permeability that may shock and thrombocytopenia, and coagulopathy that can induce hemorrhage.

Survival among children and adults treated with granulocyte transfusions: Twenty years' experience at a Brazilian blood center.

Background: It remains controversial whether granulocyte transfusions as a supportive treatment improve survival in patients with febrile neutropenia or granulocyte dysfunctions. We describe survival rates subsequent to granulocyte transfusions in pediatric and adults patients treated at a major blood center in Brazil.

Material And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical charts of pediatric and adult patients treated with granulocyte transfusions at our institution from January 2000 to October 2019.

Correlation between SARS-COV-2 antibody screening by immunoassay and neutralizing antibody testing.

Background: The efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP), an alternative for the treatment of COVID-19, depends on high titers of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs), but assays for quantifying nAbs are not widely available. Our goal was to develop a strategy to predict high titers of nAbs based on the results of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoassays and the clinical characteristics of CP donors.

Study Design And Methods: A total of 214 CP donors were enrolled and tested for the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG) using two commercial immunoassays: EUROIMMUN (ELISA) and Abbott (Chemiluminescence).

Validation of a formula predictive of peripheral blood stem cell yield and successful collection in healthy allogeneic donors.

Background: An efficient mobilization and collection of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) are crucial to optimize engraftment in the recipient. We aim to validate a formula that predicted CD34 cell yield and to describe variables that correlated with high yield mobilization and collection in healthy donors.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical and laboratory data from healthy donors who underwent PBSC collection from 2006 to 2015.

Absolute monocyte count is a predictor of overall survival and progression-free survival in nodal peripheral T cell lymphoma.

Nodal peripheral T cell lymphomas (nPTCL) present aggressive clinical course, and its heterogeneous nature and poor prognosis with current therapeutic strategies make it a target for the development of new prognostic markers. Thus, we investigated tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) according to the number of cells expressing CD68 in biopsies and the absolute monocyte count (AMC) in peripheral blood of 87 patients with nPTCL. The median overall survival (OS) was 3 years (95% CI 1.

[A case of squamous cell carcinoma of the lung with bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation (BDUMP) diagnosed by visual disturbance].

A 50-year-old man presented with visual disturbance at a local ophthalmology clinic. He was given a diagnosis of uveitis and treated with oral corticosteroids; however, his visual disturbance did not improve and he was admitted to our hospital. A chest CT scan showed a pulmonary nodule in the upper lobe of the right lung, and right hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy.

Cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 binds and phosphorylates DNA methyltransferase 1.

DNA methyltransferase 1 (Dnmt1) is an enzyme that recognizes and methylates hemimethylated CpG after DNA replication to maintain methylation patterns. Although the N-terminal region of Dnmt1 is known to interact with various proteins, such as methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2), the associations of protein kinases with this region have not been reported. In the present study, we found that a 110-kDa protein kinase in mouse brain could bind to the N-terminal domain of Dnmt1.

Hypoxia-regulated components of the U4/U6.U5 tri-small nuclear riboprotein complex: possible role in autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa.

Purpose: High oxygen consumption and cyclical changes related to dark-adaptation are characteristic of the outer retina. Oxygenation changes may contribute to the selective vulnerability of the retina in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) patients, especially for those forms involving genes with global cellular functions. Genes coding for components of the U4/U6.

Wolfram syndrome 1 (WFS1) protein expression in retinal ganglion cells and optic nerve glia of the cynomolgus monkey.

Wolfram syndrome (WFS1, OMIM 222300) is a rare genetic disorder associated with multiple organ abnormalities, most prominently optic nerve atrophy and diabetes. Mutations in the WFS1 gene coding for wolframin have been identified. The pathogenesis for optic nerve atrophy remains elusive.

Complex neurodegeneration in retina following moderate ischemia induced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion in Wistar rats.

Bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) produces moderate levels of ischemia in the retina of rats, which may simulate the inflow disturbances in severe carotid artery disease. ERG changes following acute BCCAO have been well described, but the effects of chronic BCCAO on the histopathology of the retina remain to be characterized in a reproducible model. Chronic BCCAO was induced in halothane-anaesthetized male Wistar rats and the retina fixed after 3, 6, or 24 hr, 1 week, and 2, 4, or 6 months.

Astrocytes react to oligemia in the forebrain induced by chronic bilateral common carotid artery occlusion in rats.

The effects of oligemia (moderate ischemia) on the brain need to be explored because of the potential role of subtle microvascular changes in vascular cognitive impairment and dementia. Chronic bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) in adult rats has been used to study effects of oligemia (hypoperfusion) using neuropathological and neurochemical analysis as well as behavioral tests. In this study, BCCAO was induced for 1 week, or 2, 4, and 6 months.

Photoreceptor synapses degenerate early in experimental choroidal neovascularization.

Severe visual loss in patients with age-related macular degeneration is associated with the development of choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The pathogenic mechanisms for CNV formation have been extensively investigated, but remarkably little research has addressed the mechanisms for dysfunction of the retina in CNV. Using laser-induced CNV in mice, we evaluated the mechanisms of retinal dysfunction.

Ocular delivery of acetylsalicylic acid by repetitive coulomb-controlled iontophoresis.

To investigate the potential of transscleral coulomb-controlled iontophoresis (CCI) for repetitive delivery of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) into the eye, a total of 50 rabbits was included in this study. Fourteen animals received serial CCI treatment. Fourteen animals underwent CCI with either ASA or balanced salt solution (BSS) for at least 6 days at 24- and 48-hour intervals.

The a-wave latency in control subjects and patients with retinal diseases.

Purpose: To determine the a-wave latency of the electroretinograms (ERGs) recorded from control subjects and patients with retinal diseases.

Methods: The a-wave latency and implicit time (IT) were measured retrospectively from the ERGs of 40 control subjects and 99 patients. The patients included 9 with complete congenital stationary night blindness (cCSNB), 13 with achromatopsia or cone dystrophy, 5 with supernormal and delayed rod ERG syndrome, and 72 with retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

Evidence that a-wave latency of the electroretinogram is determined solely by photoreceptors.

Purpose: To identify the retinal cells that determine the a-wave latency of rats.

Methods: Electroretinograms (ERGs) were recorded from the rod-dominated (0.85% cones) retinas of Long-Evans rats following an intravitreal injection of 1 microL of 40 mM 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid to block the activity of the ON pathway of the second order retinal neurons.

Reliability and significance of measurements of a-wave latency in rats.

Purpose: To determine whether measurements of the a-wave latency of the electroretinogram (ERG) can be made as reliably as that of the implicit time (IT) in rats. In addition, to determine the relationship between the potential level selected for the latency and the baseline potential level.

Methods: ERGs, elicited by different stimulus intensities, were recorded from Long-Evans rats.

Intravitreal acetylsalicylic acid in silicone oil: pharmacokinetics and evaluation of its safety by ERG and histology.

Background: A new method of intravitreal drug delivery of acetylsalicyclic acid (AS) in silicone oil was investigated for safety and for its pharmacokinetics in the posterior pole of the eye.

Methods: The AS was mixed in silicone oil to a concentration of 1.67 mg/ml.

HRG4 (UNC119) mutation found in cone-rod dystrophy causes retinal degeneration in a transgenic model.

Purpose: To investigate the function and pathogenicity of HRG4, a photoreceptor synaptic protein homologous to the Caenorhabditis elegans neuroprotein UNC119.

Methods: HRG4 was screened for mutations in patients with various retinopathies, and a transgenic mouse model was constructed and analyzed based on a mutation found.

Results: A heterozygous premature termination codon mutation was found in a 57-year-old woman with late-onset cone-rod dystrophy.

Ultrastructural and ERG findings in mice with adenomatous polyposis coli gene disruption.

Purpose: In order to continue the previous morphological studies of eyes from mice with adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene mutation at codon 1638, we determined the ultrastructural and electrophysiologic characteristics of these eyes.

Methods: Thirty-eight eyes from 20 mice heterozygous for APC gene mutation and 22 eyes from 11 wild-type mice were examined by light microscopy. Six APC-modified eyes without light microscopic abnormalities, four APC-modified eyes with focal light microscopic abnormalities, and four wild-type eyes were examined by electron microscopy.

Low-frequency damped electroretinographic wavelets in young asymptomatic patients with dominant retinitis pigmentosa: a new electroretinographic finding.

Objective: To describe a previously unreported electroretinographic (ERG) pattern in early retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

Design: Two case reports.

Participants: Two unrelated young asymptomatic patients with autosomal-dominant retinitis pigmentosa were studied.

Rpe65 is necessary for production of 11-cis-vitamin A in the retinal visual cycle.

Mutation of RPE65 can cause severe blindness from birth or early childhood, and RPE65 protein is associated with retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) vitamin A metabolism. Here, we show that Rpe65-deficient mice exhibit changes in retinal physiology and biochemistry. Outer segment discs of rod photoreceptors in Rpe65-/- mice are disorganized compared with those of Rpe65+/+ and Rpe65+/- mice.

The c-wave of the electroretinogram recorded under clinical conditions from rabbits.

To determine whether large and repeatable c-waves can be recorded from rabbits with equipment already in use in clinical electroretinographic laboratories, the Burian-Allen electrode, connected bipolarly or monopolarly, was used to record electroretinograms from pigmented rabbits. The Jet electrode was also used. The c-waves elicited by long-duration (4-second) stimuli were compared to those elicited by stroboscopic stimuli.

Effects of basic fibroblast growth factor on the retinal degeneration of the mi(vit)/mi(vit) (vitiligo) mouse: a morphologic and electrophysiologic study.

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been shown to rescue dying photoreceptor cells in the RCS rat, a model with a genetic defect of the RPE that impairs outer segment phagocytosis. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether intravitreal injection of bFGF would have a similar effect on photoreceptor cell death in the vitiligo (C57BL/6-mi(vit)/mi(vit)) mouse. This mutant mouse loses photoreceptor cells slowly over many months.

Local carboplatin therapy in transgenic murine retinoblastoma.

Purpose: To determine the efficacy and toxicity associated with intraocular delivery of carboplatin in the treatment of murine transgenic hereditary retinoblastoma.

Methods: Forty-eight transgenic BLH-SV40 Tag retinoblastoma mice were administered five intravitreal injections of carboplatin in one eye. After 12 weeks, the eyes were examined histopathologically to evaluate tumor burden.