International survey of Cronobacter sakazakii and other Cronobacter spp. in follow up formulas and infant foods.

A coordinated survey for Cronobacter and related organisms in powdered infant formula, follow up formula and infant foods was undertaken by 8 laboratories in 7 countries in recognition of and in response to the data needs identified in an FAO/WHO call for data in order to develop global risk management guidance for these products. The products (domestic and imported) were purchased from the local market and were categorised according to their principle ingredients. A total of 290 products were analysed using a standardised procedure of pre-enrichment in 225 ml Buffered Peptone Water (BPW), followed by enrichment in Enterobacteriaceae Enrichment (EE) broth, plating on the chromogenic Cronobacter Druggan-Forsythe-Iversen (DFI) agar and presumptive identification with ID 32 E.

Renal allograft function and cardiovascular risk in recipients of kidney transplantation after successful pregnancy.

Successful pregnancy is one of the better indicators of quality of life for women who are of child-bearing age with restored fertility after kidney transplantation. Our objective was to evaluate whether pregnancy represented a risk factor for worsening of renal function or for cardiovascular disease among renal transplant recipients. From 1976 to 2007, we followed 30 successful pregnancies in 27 renal recipients in our hospital; three women had two twin gestations.

Aminophylline (a theophylline-ethylenediamine complex) blocks ethanol behavioral effects in mice.

Aminophylline is a complex of theophylline-ethylenediamine, where theophylline is the main component. Theophylline is a methyxanthine and besides inhibiting phosphodiesterase enzymes, it is also a nonselective adenosine antagonist. Several reports suggested the involvement of the brain adenosinergic system in the ethanol-induced motor incoordination.

[Autologous transplantation of retinal pigment epithelium in age related macular degeneration].

Retinal pigment epithelial dysfunction is believed to be the main cause of many debilitating retinal diseases of which age-related macular degeneration is the most common. In this disease, the retinal pigment epithelial dysfunction leads to photoreceptors damage causing severe vision loss. The retinal pigment epithelium and Bruch's membrane suffer cumulative damage over lifetime, which is thought to induce age-related macular degeneration in susceptible individuals.

Pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade for acute endophthalmitis treatment.

Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes of pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil injection for the treatment of infectious endophthalmitis.

Methods: 35 cases of endophthalmitis secondary to phacoemulsification (20 patients), trabeculectomy (8 patients), perforating trauma (2 patients), trauma (2 patients), corneal transplantation (1 patient), vitrectomy (1 patient) and corneal ulceration (1 patient) were retrospectively studied. Patients were separated into two groups: Group 1 (n=24): intravitreal antibiotic injection, associated with topical and oral antibiotics; Group 2 (n=11): vitrectomy with intravitreal antibiotic injection and silicone oil injection.

[Fidelity of the potential acuity meter in the postoperative visual acuity of cataract surgery].

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between the preoperative visual acuity (VA) obtained by the potential acuity meter (PAM) and the postoperative VA in a patient submitted to cataract surgery, as well as its correlation with the dominant morphologic classification of the cataract.

Methods: This is a prospective study performed at the Hospital Monumento Study Center. Sixty-three eyes of 45 patients submitted to phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation were enrolled in this study and 1 eye had been excluded.

Purification, physicochemical properties, thermal analysis and antinociceptive effect of atranorin extracted from Cladina kalbii.

Lichens and their secondary metabolites have attracted the interest of many researchers. Some species have been shown to contain substances with remarkable biologic activity, as antimicrobial, mainly against Gram positive bacteria; antineoplasic acting on solid and ascetic tumors, or in culture cells; antiviral; hypotensive; and spasmolytic effects. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize atranorin, one of the major constituents which presents in Cladina kalbii (DES ABB.

Multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer calibration for spectral aerosol optical depth retrievals over São Paulo City, Brazil.

Multifilter rotating shadowband radiometer (MFRSR) calibration values for aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals were determined by means of the general method formulated by Forgan [Appl. Opt.33, 4841 (1994)] at a polluted urban site.

[Choroidal metastasis simulating uveal effusion syndrome: case report].

We report a case of choroidal metastasis simulating uveal effusion syndrome. This patient with uveal metastasis from lung carcinoma presented with decreased vision in the left eye. Fundoscopic examination revealed pigmentary clumping, multiple choroidal nodules and serous retinal detachment.

Biological effects of a sulfated-polysaccharide isolated from the marine red algae Champia feldmannii.

Sulfated-polysaccharides are exploited as antithrombotic and anticoagulant agents and suggested to be immunostimulants. The sulfated-polysaccharide isolated from the red-marine-algae Champia feldmannii (Cf-PLS) was purified by ion exchange chromatography and tested in experimental protocols of coagulation, inflammation (in Wistar rats) and nociception (in Swiss mice). Cf-PLS was tested i.

Retinal detachment surgery with silicone oil injection in transconjunctival sutureless 23-gauge vitrectomy.

Purpose: To report a surgical technique for retinal detachment surgery using transconjunctival sutureless 23-gauge vitrectomy with silicone oil injection.

Methods: Thirty-one patients with retinal detachment underwent vitreoretinal surgery using a transconjunctival sutureless 23-gauge vitrectomy system. At the end of the procedure silicone oil was injected into all eyes through a microcannula.

Synthesis and antispasmodic activity of lidocaine derivatives endowed with reduced local anesthetic action.

The present structure-activity relationship (SAR) study focused on chemical modifications of the structure of the local anesthetic lidocaine, and indicated analogues having reduced anesthetic potency, but with superior potency relative to the prototype in preventing anaphylactic or histamine-evoked ileum contraction. From the SAR analysis, 2-(diethylamino)-N-(trifluoromethyl-phenyl) and 2-(diethylamino)-N-(dimethyl-phenyl) acetamides were selected as the most promising compounds. New insights into the applicability of non-anesthetic lidocaine derivatives as templates in drug discovery for allergic syndromes are provided.

Transconjunctival retinopexy with active external drainage of subretinal fluid: a prospective pilot study of eight consecutive cases.

Purpose: To describe an alternative surgical technique for the management of retinal detachment with no or minimal proliferative vitreoretinopathy (grade B) using transconjunctival retinopexy with active external drainage of subretinal fluid.

Methods: In a prospective, interventional study, eight consecutive patients with retinal detachment with no or minimal proliferative vitreoretinopathy (grade B) underwent transconjunctival retinopexy with active external drainage of subretinal fluid. Transconjunctival external drainage of subretinal fluid was achieved by using a 29 gauge needle placed in the subretinal space under indirect ophthalmoscopic monitoring.

Bilateral acute acquired toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis after steroid therapy for hantavirus pulmonary syndrome: case report.

Description of a case of acute acquired ocular toxoplasmosis following hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. A 41-year-old man presenting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, confirmed in the laboratory by detection of IgM antibodies to the virus, was submitted to high doses of intravenous corticosteroids for two months. After clinical improvement of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome the patient presented visual loss in both eyes that was secondary to a toxoplasmosis retinitis.

20-gauge transconjunctival pars plana vitrectomy.

This article describes a transconjunctival technique for pars plana vitrectomy using 20-gauge instruments. Sclerotomies are performed directly through the conjunctiva, Tenon's capsule, and sclera with a 19-gauge microvitreoretinal blade. A sutureless 20-gauge infusion cannula is then inserted and pars plana vitrectomy is performed in a standardized fashion using 20-gauge instruments.

Vitrectomy with and without scleral buckling for retinal detachment.

Purpose: To compare the surgical results of vitrectomy with and without scleral buckling for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD).

Methods: Fifty-one patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment with proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) at different stages were submitted to pars plana vitrectomy as the primary surgery, 23 patients (45.09%) with scleral buckle (group I) and 28 (54.

Identification of a 26-kDa protein fraction as an important antigen for application in the immunodiagnosis of strongyloidiasis.

Strongyloidiasis caused by the intestinal nematode Strongyloides stercoralis typically occurs in the asymptomatic form. The definitive diagnosis is usually done by detection of larvae on fecal samples. However, as the parasite load is often low in most cases, microscopy is not usually sensitive and specific, and diagnosis becomes extremely difficult.

Resection of a mediastinal schwannoma using video-assisted thoracoscopy.

Schwannomas are tumors that are typically benign. They are derived from Schwann cells (glial cells of the peripheral nervous system that serve to separate and isolate nerve cells from adjacent structures). The most common type of schwannoma is a benign tumor of cranial nerve VIII and is referred to as an acoustic neuroma.

L-DOPA increases lignification associated with Glycine max root growth-inhibition.

L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L: -DOPA), an allelochemical exuded from the roots of velvet bean [Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. var.

Modelling hydrogen sulphide emission in a WWTP with UASB reactor followed by aerobic biofilters.

Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) represents one of the main odorant gases emitted from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and a mathematical model can be a fast and low cost tool to estimate its emission. In this work H2S emission rates in a WWTP, composed of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and an aerobic biofilter (BF), are estimated using four mathematical models available in the literature (AP-42, GPC, TOXCHEM + and WATER8). The results show that the GPC model leads to the best agreement with the experimental data, except for the biofilter due to its lack of capability to include biodegradation as a H2S removal process.

Neutrophil infiltration is implicated in the sustained thermal hyperalgesic response evoked by allergen provocation in actively sensitized rats.

It has been proposed that allergen provocation induces hyperalgesia but the involvement of immunoglobulin E and leukocytes remains poorly understood. Here, we have compared the profile of allergen-evoked thermal hyperalgesic response in both passively and actively sensitized rats, and investigated the role of leukocytes in allergen-evoked nociception. Wistar rats were passively sensitized with an intraplantar injection of immunoglobulin E anti-dinitrophenylated bovine serum albumin monoclonal antibody (0.

A novel peptide from the ACEI/BPP-CNP precursor in the venom of Crotalus durissus collilineatus.

In crotaline venoms, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors [ACEIs, also known as bradykinin potentiating peptides (BPPs)], are products of a gene coding for an ACEI/BPP-C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) precursor. In the genes from Bothrops jararaca and Gloydius blomhoffii, ACEI/BPP sequences are repeated. Sequencing of a cDNA clone from venom glands of Crotalus durissus collilineatus showed that two ACEIs/BPPs are located together at the N-terminus, but without repeats.

Pharmacokinetic and toxicity investigations of a new intraocular lens with a dexamethasone drug delivery system: a pilot study.

Aim: To investigate the short-term safety and pharmacokinetic behavior of a new intraocular lens containing a dexamethasone drug delivery system (IOL-DDS) in rabbit eyes.

Methods: A modified polymethylmethacrylate IOL containing a biodegradable dexamethasone DDS was implanted into the posterior chamber of the right eyes of 9 New Zealand white rabbits. Serial slitlamp and indirect ophthalmoscopic examinations (including grading of intraocular inflammation) were performed.

Evaluation of the natural virucidal activity of teas for use in the phage amplification assay.

Many natural products have intrinsic antimicrobial activity. In this study we have examined infusions from nine types of loose-leaf tea for their ability to inactivate bacteriophage, for use as an alternative to plant extract in a phage-based Salmonella detection assay. The results demonstrated that tea infusions, either freshly prepared or stored at 4 degrees C had virucidal action against two phages, Felix 01 and P22.