The effect of monomeric and oligomeric FLAVAnols in patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria (FLAVA-trial): A double-blind randomized controlled trial.

Background & Aims: Microalbuminuria is an early sign of vascular complications of type 2 diabetes and predicts cardiovascular disease and mortality. Monomeric and oligomeric flavanols (MOFs) are linked to improved vascular health. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of 3 months MOFs on albuminuria and endothelial function markers in patients with type 2 diabetes and microalbuminuria.

Use of monomeric and oligomeric flavanols in the dietary management of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and microalbuminuria (FLAVA trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) are prone to micro- and macro-vascular complications. Monomeric and oligomeric flavanols (MOF) isolated from grape seeds (Vitis vinifera) have been linked to improved endothelial function and vascular health. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of a daily supplementation of 200 mg MOF on renal endothelial function of patients with T2D and microalbuminuria.

The sunny side of lime.

A 26-year-old woman was affected with a maculopapular rash because of a jellyfish sting on her right leg while surfing in Indonesia. A locally-prepared liniment was applied on the affected skin. She presented with hyperpigmented linear tracks that she noted a few days later.

[A woman with a biting arthropod].

A 36-year-old woman presented with a red, itching bump on her back and brought the arthropod that had bitten her. The diagnosis, a bite of a soft tick, was made by determination of the arthropod as a pigeon tick (Argas reflexus). Pigeon ticks only occasionally bite humans and can transmit multiple infectious diseases.

Severe leptospirosis in a Dutch traveller returning from the Dominican Republic, October 2011.

In October 2011, a case of leptospirosis was identified in a Dutch traveller returning from the Dominican Republic to the Netherlands. The 51-year-old man had aspired muddy water in the Chavón river on 29 September. Twenty days later he presented with fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, arthralgia, headache, conjunctival suffusion and icterus.