Constitutive activation of the PI3K-Akt-mTORC1 pathway sustains the m.3243 A > G mtDNA mutation.

Mutations of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) cause a range of profoundly debilitating clinical conditions for which treatment options are very limited. Most mtDNA diseases show heteroplasmy - tissues express both wild-type and mutant mtDNA. While the level of heteroplasmy broadly correlates with disease severity, the relationships between specific mtDNA mutations, heteroplasmy, disease phenotype and severity are poorly understood.

Haematology reports of routine blood films in patients with burns.

A retrospective pilot study of 99 peripheral blood films from 27 patients with burns is reported. Abnormalities of the granular leucocyte series were more common in the more extensive burns and usually preceded bacteriological evidence of wound pathogens or a clinical decision to take a blood culture. The evidence suggests that a prospective study is needed to determine the possible clinical value of reporting such granulocyte abnormalities.

Severe morbidity among children in a trial malaria chemoprophylaxis with pyrimethamine or chloroquine in Ibarapa, Nigeria.

In a controlled trial of weekly malaria chemoprophylaxis with chloroquine and pyrimethamine there were no significant differences in type and frequency of severe morbidity during chemoprophylaxis. Administration of chemoprophylaxis during the current and immediately preceding month was associated with significantly fewer episodes of severe morbidity in the chloroquine and pyrimethamine groups when each was compared with the control multivite group. After chemoprophylaxis had been stopped, significantly more episodes of severe morbidity occurred in the chloroquine group than the control group, but a similar trend in the pyrimethamine group was not statistically significant.

The contribution of Ruscoe Clarke and his team to knowledge relevant to blood loss after injury.

The major contributions of Ruscoe Clarke, made between 1947 and 1959 at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, are recalled. He and his team measured the red cell volumes. By these and other means we estimated the average blood loss from a series of civilian injuries.

Iron deficiency in pregnant women in Ibarapa District of Western Nigeria.

Ninety-nine pregnant women with anaemia (haematocrit less than 0.30) were detected by antenatal screening in Ibarapa District. Studies on 23 anaemic women and 17 non-anaemic women from the same clinic on the same day showed that eight out of 23 anaemic women had a transferrin saturation of less than 15%.

Sickle cell anaemia: diagnosis and care in a Nigerian health centre.

A study of 156 cases of SS and SC disease diagnosed at Igbo-Ora between 1962 and 1975 is described. In 1971 haemoglobin electrophoresis was introduced for all previously untested patients with a PCV of less than 30 and/or a clinical suspicion of SS or SC. Following this, the total known cases of SS and SC disease rose from nine to 156 in four years.

The relation of the isoagglutinins in pooled plasma to the haemolytic anaemia of burns.

Patients showing red cell loss following severe burns have been considered in two groups, the more severe cases with late haemoglobinuria and the more numerous less severe cases without late haemoglobinuria. Patients who had late haemoglobinuria usually belonged to group A or AB, showed a normal or increased osmotic fragility of red cells, and had received more than three plasma volumes of pooled plasma. It is suggested that this haemolytic anaemia may have been caused by the anti-A isoagglutinins in pooled plasma or serum.