Evaluation of a portable hemoglobinometer (HemoCue) to control anemia in hepatitis C liver transplant recipients undergoing antiviral therapy.

Background: Monitoring of anemia, the most frequent side-effect of antiviral therapy in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected liver transplant recipients, requires frequent blood tests and medical visits.

Aims: The primary aim of this study was to assess the usefulness and the accuracy of a portable hemoglobinometer (HemoCue) in patients receiving antiviral therapy after liver transplantation due to severe hepatitis C recurrence in the graft. The secondary aim was to evaluate the usefulness of this device in terms of cost-saving and time-saving benefits.

[Dynamic modifications in islets of Langerhans in two lines of spontaneously diabetic rats].

The eSMT rat is derived from the crossing of eSS and beta, both lines belonging to the IIM strain, while eSS is a model of type 2 diabetes without overweight and beta develops moderate obesity and late glucose intolerance. Metabolic characteristics and histopathological findings in endocrine pancreas of eSS and eSMT were compared. Young eSMT animals are more robust than eSS and develop more intense fasting hyperglycemia and glucose intolerance at an earlier age.

[Feeding behavior and glycemic profile in two lines of rats with genetic diabetes].

Introduction: Food intake can aggravate diabetes in humans and in animal models. In rat model systems, the eSMT rat strain shows increased diabetes expression and higher biomass than its eSS parental line. OBVJECTIVE: The feeding behavior of eSMT and eSS males was compared under conditions of ad libitum versus restrictive food intake.

[Right to life vs right to a determined quality of life. Reflections on human cloning].

This article studies the bioethic divergences appeared as a consequence of the use and therapeutic obtaining of stem cells. It also chronicles the development of the cloning techniques and then, following the parameters of Bioethics, it distinguishes a categorization of the cloning with reproductive aims and cloning with therapeutic aims. It emphasizes how this problematic takes us to the beginning of human life and to the determination of the moment where this one deserves ethic recognition and legal protection.

[Chronic bronchial dilatations in different colonies of laboratory rats].

Bronchiectasis occurred naturally in 12-month-old spontaneously diabetic eSS male rats. The lungs of 3 and 6-month-old eSS rats were compared in eumetabolic eSS rats from three inbred lines consisting of inbred spontaneously diabetic eSS derived from IIM strain; these were compared with eumetabolic, outbred Wistar rats, paired by sex and age. Acrylic casts of bronchial tree were obtained after injection of a plastic substance.