Plasma leptin and adiponectin concentrations in healthy, non-obese children.

Background: Alterations in plasma leptin and adiponectin concentrations are associated with an adverse metabolic profile in obese children.

Objective: To simultaneously assess multiple factors with possible effects on plasma leptin and adiponectin concentrations in healthy, non-obese children.

Subjects: We studied 170 healthy non-obese children (86 males, age 10+1.

Increased seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in a population of patients with Bell's palsy: a sceptical interpretation of the results regarding the pathogenesis of facial nerve palsy.

Facial nerve oedema and anatomical predisposition to compression within the fallopian tube seem to be the only generally accepted facts in the pathophysiology of Bell's palsy. Several infectious causes have been suggested as possible triggers of this oedema. Most of the suggested pathogens have been associated with facial nerve lesions during latent infections, reinfections or endogenous reactivations.

Bacterial translocation in a rat model of large volume hepatic radiofrequency ablation.

Background: In this experimental study, we investigated the possibility of bacterial translocation, constituting a potential cause of infectious complications, after performing large volume hepatic radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

Materials And Methods: Wistar rats were subjected to RFA of the left median liver lobe (approximately 28.5% of the liver volume) after midline laparotomy.

Diversity of antibiotic resistance integrative and conjugative elements among haemophili.

The objective of this study was to investigate the sequence diversity in a single country of a family of integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) that are vectors of antibiotic resistance in Haemophilus influenzae and Haemophilus parainfluenzae, and test the hypothesis that they emerged from a single lineage. Sixty subjects aged 9 months - 13 years were recruited and oropharyngeal samples cultured. Up to 10 morphologically distinct Pasteurellaceae spp.

Epidemiology and molecular analysis of intestinal colonization by vancomycin-resistant enterococci in greek hospitals.

From 1,246 specimens collected from 13 Greek hospitals, 266 vancomycin-resistant enterococci strains were isolated from 255 patients (20.5%). The VanA phenotype was present in 82 (30.