C3 Glomerulopathy: A Current Perspective in an Evolving Landscape.

Background: Complement 3 (C3) glomerulopathy (C3G) is a heterogenous disease characterized by dysregulation of the complement alternative pathway. Within 10 years of a diagnosis, roughly 50% of patients with C3G will progress to end-stage kidney disease. Historically, treatment options have been limited to nonspecific immune suppression with suboptimal response rates to recommended therapies.

Concurrent Hospice in a Veteran's Affairs Dialysis Unit: A Single Center Experience and Lessons Learned over 4 Years.

End stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients until recently have been effectively excluded from receiving hospice benefits unless they withdraw from renal replacement therapy. Policy change has allowed select populations to receive concurrent hospice and hemodialysis. We conducted a retrospective analysis of all deaths occurring from 2019 to 2022 among outpatient hemodialysis patients at our VA medical center.

Looks can be Deceiving: A Challenging Case of Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Autoantibody Associated Vasculitis.

[Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis] (AAV) is an autoimmune disease characterized by systemic vascular inflammation. We present a case of a 76-year-old man who presented with shortness of breath, fatigue, and weakness. He was eventually diagnosed with hydralazine-induced ANCA-associated renal limited glomerulonephritis.

Locating and quantifying multiple landfills methane emissions using aircraft data.

A mass balance approach to quantify methane (CH4) emission of four co-located landfills by means of airborne measurements and dispersion modelling was proposed and assessed. By flying grids at different heights above the landfills, atmospheric CH4 densities and wind components were measured along the edges and inside the study atmospheric volume, in order to calculate mass flows in the along- and across-wind directions. A steady-state Gaussian dispersion model was applied to build the concentration fields associated to unit emission from each landfill, while the contribution of each one to the total emission was assessed using a General Linear Model approach, minimizing the difference between measured and modeled mass flows.

Therapy of Klebsiella pneumoniae septicaemia in neutropenic rats.

The efficacy of intramuscular gentamicin, sisomicin, tobramycin and amikacin was evaluated in the antimicrobial therapy of septicaemia due to Klebsiella pneumoniae in an experimental model of infection in rats rendered neutropenic by cyclophosphamide. Animals were injected with a LD50 of micro-organisms and 4 hours later treated with a therapeutic i.m.

[Antibacterial activity in vitro of several aminoglycosides and cephalosporins].

The "in vitro" rate of killing on different microorganisms was studied for three cephalosporins (cephazolin, cefuroxime and cefoxitin) and four aminoglycosides (gentamicin, tobramycin, sisomicin and amikacin). In all experiments an inoculum effect and a negative influence by adding plasma to the nutrient broth were observed, the latter phenomenon being more pronounced with cephalosporins than with aminoglycosides. While the "in vitro" effects of antibiotic concentrations equal to the MIC or to the MBC were informing on the intrinsic antibacterial activity of single drugs, a more satisfactory approach to therapeutic reality was provided by studying the "in vitro" effects of concentrations equal to peak blood level or to the logarythmic mean of blood level, that is a parameter which contributes to the blood-tissue diffusion gradient.

[Penetration of amoxicillin into the cerebrospinal fluid].

The results of a study of the CSF concentration of i.v. amoxicillin in control subjects free of meningeal inflammation are presented.

Bacterial toxins and glucagon in liver cAMP regulation: a physiopathological role in liver diseases?

Alterations of the specific enzymes located in the cell membranes might promote changes of the cyclic nucleotides ratio which is regulatory in growth stimulation of hepatocytes. Bacterial toxins, hormones and drugs affecting cyclic nucleotides system can interfere with this process in liver diseases. The Authors have determined hepatic cAMP concentrations by means of cAMP radioimmunoassay, in vivo, in rats treated with cholera toxin (CT), E.

Control of endotoxinemia in liver disease by lactulose and paromomycin.

Through the use of the Limulus test research has been carried out on gram-negative endotoxin in patients with hepatic cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, acute hepatitis, and in a control group. The positivity of this test in patients with cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis was 93.3% and in cases of acute hepatitis it was 90.

Investigations on the actions of silybin on regenerating rat liver. Effects on Kupffer's cells.

Studies were conducted on the effects of silybin upon the biological activities of Kupffer's cells in regenerating livers of rats subjected to partial hepatectomy. As far as proliferative activity is concerned, which was assessed by the colchicine stathmokinetic method on Kupffer's cells isolated from the liver by enzymatic digestion, it was appreciably increased in rats treated with silybin in respect of controls. Phagocytic and bactericidal activities were not modified.

Post-varicella acute transverse myelitis.

This report of a case of acute transverse myelitis, after otherwise uneventful varicella, further stresses the importance that the possibility of this relatively rare complication should be kept in mind in patients developing a paraplegic syndrome late in the course of the disease.

[Results of a double blind study on the effect of silymarin in the treatment of acute viral hepatitis, carried out at two medical centres (author's transl)].

In a double blind study carried out under standard conditions at two treatment centers silymarin, 2 sugar-coated tablets 70 mg three times daily, showed a definite therapeutic influence on the characteristic increased serum levels of bilirubin, GOT and GPT associated with acute viral hepatitis. The above mentioned values in 28 patients treated with silymarin were compared with those in 29 patients treated with placebo. The laboratory parameters in the silymarin group regressed more than in the placebo group after the 5th day of treatment.

Inhibiting effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the chemotaxis of human leukocytes in vitro.

Chemotaxis of human leukocytes was inhibited in vitro by four non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, namely, lysine acetylsalicylate, phenylbutazone, indomethacin, and indoprofen. Dose-dependent effects were always found and significant regression was proved for all drugs except phenylbutazone.