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Emerging tick-borne disease in African vipers caused by a Cowdria-like organism.

Heartwater is a tick-borne infectious disease caused by the rickettsial organism Cowdria ruminantium, currently Ehrlichia ruminantium. It poses an imminent threat to the Western Hemisphere, where it could cause mortality in cattle and other ruminant livestock in excess of 70%. It has been reported in the Caribbean; and its vector, Amblyomma sparsum, has been found on imported African spurred tortoises (Geochelone sulcata) and leopard tortoises (Geochelone pardalis) in southern Florida in the United States, leading to an importation ban on these reptiles. Symptoms have not been previously reported in reptiles. Here, we report peracute and acute deaths in African vipers imported from Africa through Florida. Signs included vomiting mucoid fluid, diarrhea, emaciation, convulsions, and death. Postmortem showed few gross lesions. The most consistent peracute and acute lesions were the pulmonary lesions and pericarditis with considerable bloody fluid in the pericardial sac (hydropericardium). These lesions strongly resembled the lesions of heartwater and a coccobacillus of less than 1-micron diameter was isolated in viper cell culture. The outbreak was brought to a halt by tick control and treatment of all exposed snakes with tetracycline. This isolation, tetracycline sensitivity, clinical signs, preliminary results with polymerase chain reaction of pCS20 ORF, and the viper preference of the disease may indicate a Cowdria-related attenuated species that has adapted to infect reptiles or an emerging new form of this group of microbes.

Animals↗

Circulating soluble leptin receptor and free leptin index during childhood, puberty, and adolescence.

Leptin is bound in human blood by a high affinity binding protein, which appears to be identical with the soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R). Using a ligand-mediated immunofunctional assay for the determination of serum sOB-R, we investigated its course during childhood, puberty, and adolescence in a large cohort of 581 healthy children and adolescents and a small group of 13 patients with anorexia nervosa. In the first years of life, sOB-R is detectable in remarkably high concentrations. Thereafter, a continuous decline of sOB-R levels was found. Consequently, correlation analyses demonstrated significant inverse relationships (P < 0.001) of sOB-R with age, IGF-I levels, pubertal stage, auxological and body composition parameters, as well as with leptin concentrations. Multiple regression analysis revealed that height, IGF-I, and age (only in girls) were independent predictors of sOB-R levels; these variables account for approximately 65% and 48% of the variation of sOB-R levels in boys and girls, respectively. The courses of age-dependent median values for the free leptin index (FLI, ratio between leptin and sOB-R levels) and for leptin levels were parallel in both genders. Correlation analyses demonstrated that in particular parameters of growth and sexual maturation are more closely related to the FLI than to leptin alone; this closer relationship is more pronounced among boys. Weight gains of patients with anorexia nervosa resulted in a significant increase in leptin and IGF-I levels (P < 0.01), whereas the median of sOB-R values decreased (P < 0.01). sOB-R and IGF-I levels were again significantly correlated (r = -0.55, P < 0.01). These findings suggest that high levels of sOB-R in emaciation may reflect an up-regulation of the sOB-R to suppress leptin action during energy deficiency. Furthermore, determinations of sOB-R and FLI are additional valuable tools to investigate the leptin axis during growth and sexual maturation.

Adolescent↗

Body weight and the pituitary response to hypothalamic releasing hormones in patients with anorexia nervosa.

Fifteen women with anorexia nervosa were studied before and after weight gain. Basal plasma thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolactin (PRL), and the responses of both these hormones to thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH), were normal. Basal plasma luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) were low in patients who were emaciated, and their responses to gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) were impaired. Both basal and stimulated levels of LH and FSH rose with weight gain, with a linear correlation between gonadotropin levels and body weight expressed as a percentage of standard. The FSH response became greater than normal in patients who had regained weight to more than 70% of standard, while the LH response to GnRH was exaggerated in those who had regained weight to more than 80%. Basal plasma estradiol (E2) levels were low at first, but returned to within the normal range in patients over 80% of standard. Menstruation resumed in some patients after they had regained weight. The relationship between body weight and gonadotropin levels appears to be an important feature of the menstrual disturbance in anorexia nervosa. The restoration of a normal body weight is a prerequisite for the resumption of menstruation in this condition, but other as yet unidentified factors may also be involved.

Adolescent↗

Pressure sore as a complication of labor epidural analgesia.

UNLABELLED: Lumbar epidural analgesia has become a common mode of pain control for laboring patients. Side effects, such as hypotension, motor blockade, respiratory depression, dural puncture, and urinary retention, are well described. Although pressure sores have been thought of as a complication limited to elderly, emaciated, unconscious, or bedridden patients, we describe the occurrence of pressure sores in a young and healthy parturient after lumbar epidural analgesia. IMPLICATIONS: We report a pressure sore that resulted from lumbar epidural analgesia for labor.

Adult↗

Factors influencing the normal heart weight--a study of 140 hearts.

Weight of the heart and its various components (muscular and non muscular portions) was measured in 138 specimens. Average heart weight for Indians was comparatively less then that of western population. Difference between the average heart weights for males and females was found to be statistically significant. The heart weight was not influenced by age and body length but by the body built. A statistically significant difference was noticed in emaciated persons. Ventricular weight constituted 50 to 80 percent of the total heart weight. A close correlation between the heart weight and ventricular weight was seen. Ventricular wall thickness did not correlate well with the heart weight.

Adolescent↗

A new diabetic strain of rat (WBN/Kob).

A new, spontaneously occurring diabetic syndrome has been observed in the aged males of an inbred strain of Wistar rats, WBN/Kob. The main clinical sign, glycosuria, was first detected at about 60 weeks of age, and thereafter some animals developed hyperlipidaemia and gradual emaciation. Prior to the onset of glucosuria, male rats showed impaired glucose tolerance after a glucose load at 21 weeks of age. The histopathologic lesions of the pancreas in the diabetic males consisted of multifocal fibrosis, decreased in number and size of islets and atrophy of exocrine tissue. Multifocal inflammatory foci of varying stages were the main pancreatic lesion in prediabetic male rats. This inflammatory change was detected even in 12-week-old rats and tended to occur around the islets. Therefore focal fibrosis and the decrease in the number and size of islets were considered to result from post-inflammatory scarring. The maturity-onset of this syndrome and the impaired glucose tolerance in younger animals suggested that diabetes mellitus of this rat strain is insulin-independent type II. However, the histological lesions of the pancreas were somewhat different from previous reports of both type I and II diabetes mellitus in man and animals.

Animals↗

Isolation of Enterococcus durans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a scid mouse colony.

In a colony of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice conspicuously altered behavioural characteristics were observed: hunched position, apathy, dullness, short breath, bristled fur, emaciation, circling movements around their longitudinal axis and oblique head posture. This was most common in pregnant and lactating animals and also observed in 4 mice after experimental treatment. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, serotype P1 and Enterococcus durans, serotype D were isolated from various organs and from the middle ear. On autopsy, the mice showed signs of focal pericarditis and thickened liver capsules. The histological examination of the liver revealed mild, focal accumulations of mononuclear cells. In addition, it was observed that SCID mice with signs of this disease did not allow human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to engraft.

Animals↗

[Studies on the classification of clinical stage and histopathological grade of gastric cancer, the contribution of clinical findings and clinico-pathological changes including immunological responses].

The data from 329 gastric cancer patients (206 males and 123 females) were applied to the following statistical analysis. The stage of gastric cancer progress, which was determined by the general rules for the gastric cancer study in Japan, the counterpart of the TNM classification was predictable by a multi-variative mathematical model based on Hayashi's quantification theory which allowed to use qualitative variables as well as quantitative ones for the calculation using the variables relevant to clinical findings consisted of the grade of surgical operability, the grade of histopathological change, positive or negative liver metastasis, positive or negative histopathologically detectable lymph-node metastasis and so on. The variables relevant to clinical findings predicted accurately the stage by the above-cited model and multi-variative correlation coefficient (R2) was 0.9475, suggesting that 95% of the values predicted by those variables could identical to the observed value of the cancer stage. The variables relevant to clinical findings contributed only 29% (R2 = 0.2902) to the prediction of the histopathological grade. The stage and the histopathological grade also were predictable with the multi-variative regressive equations using the data of the clinico-pathological examinations which were administered on the day before the operation to 239 patients (139 males and 95 females) of gastric cancer and 82 control surgical patients (50 males and 32 females). The clinico-pathological indicators consisted of the SI values of Con A and PHA, leukocytes' count, lymphocytes' count, serum albumin concentration, B- and T-cell numbers. The factors which contributed to the stage, or the histopathological grade of gastric cancer were extracted respectively through principal component analysis using the respective correlation matrices consisted of the variables used for the calculation of the multi-variative regression equations in order to predict the stage or histopathological grade. For the male patients, the aging factor contributed to both of the stage and the histopathological grade. For the female patients, the factor relevant to the complication such as infectious diseases and low-nutrition emaciating the patient contributed to the cancer stage and the factor relevant to T-lymphocyte function contributed to the histopathological grade.

Aged↗

Lateral sinus thrombosis: a modern perspective.

At Emory, six cases of lateral sinus thrombosis (LST) were seen over the last ten years--two children and four adults. The picture and bacteriology of LST have changed with the advent of antibiotics as has the usefulness of various diagnostic tests. Less is it a disease of children in association with acute otitis media. More often it is seen in the adult patient after a long history of chronic ear disease. Fever and mastoid and neck tenderness are still universal signs of the affliction. However, rarely patients do present with progressive anemia, emaciation and evidence of septic emboli. Since antibiotics are commonly used during the prodromal ear infection, cultures are often negative. If they do identify an organism, it is usually a mixed flora rather than beta hemolytic streptococcus. Spinal fluid results are variable and seldom is there evidence of increased spinal fluid pressure. Arteriography, venography, and digital subtraction venography are the most reliable tests to prove and delimit the thrombus. Early management involves high dose broad spectrum, intravenous antibiotics including chloramphenicol. Surgical intervention involves a mastoidectomy, exposure of the sinus, incision and drainage, but not necessarily removal of the thrombus. Internal jugular vein ligation should be reserved for those cases in which septicemia and embolization do not respond to initial surgery and intravenous antibiotics.

Adult↗

Effects of PBBs on cattle. I. Clinical evaluations and clinical chemistry.

Toxicosis was induced in pregnant heifers by feeding 25,000 mg/head/day of FireMaster BP-6, a commercial blend of polybrominated biphenyls (PBB). The PBB feeding decreased dry matter intake approximately 50% by 4 days exposure. Emaciated animals became anorexic a few days prior to death at 33 to 66 days. Weight losses of heifers average 80 kg. Other clinical signs observed were dehydration, diarrhea, excessive salivation and lacrimation, fetal death, abortion, and general depression as evidenced by depressed heart and respiratory rates. Clinical signs were apparent after 10 days exposure and progressively intensified along with loss of condition until death. Clinicopathologic changes included significantly increased serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase and decreased serum calcium by 30 days exposure. Lactate dehydrogenase, urea nitrogen, and bilirubin were elevated, and serum albumin decreased by 36 to 40 days. Principal urine changes were decreased specific gravity and moderate proteinuria. Pregnant heifers fed 0.25 or 250 mg/head/day for 60 days and nonpregnant heifers fed 250 mg/head/day for 180 days displayed neither clinical signs nor clinicopathologic changes indicating adverse effects from PBB exposure. Post-exposure, all heifers exposed to PBB for 60 days calved normally with zero calf mortality and were successfully rebred. Milk production was not different from control animals. Birth weights of calves from dams exposed to 250 mg PBB/head/day were significantly greater than calves of dams exposed to 0 mg or 0.25 mg/head/day. PBB exposure of dams produced no detrimental effects on calves as indicated by clinical signs, clinicopathologic changes, or performance.

Animal Diseases↗

Human chymase expression in a mice induces mild hypertension with left ventricular hypertrophy.

A number of in vitro studies have suggested potential pathophysiological roles of human (h-) chymase. However, the lack of an appropriate animal model has left the in vivo roles of chymase unclear. To approach this problem, a transgenic mouse (TGM) model carrying the h-chymase gene was established. The h-chymase cDNA transgene was constructed with the chicken beta actin promoter and cytomegalovirus immediate early gene enhancer, and injected into mouse oocytes. Homozygous mice with a high copy number of the h-chymase gene suffered from intrauterine death. In three heterozygous TGM lines, h-chymase transgene expression was detected in entire organs, including the heart, vessels, skin, liver, lung, and brain. The h-chymase immunoreactivity was localized in the extracellular matrices of each organ, especially on the basement membranes of vessels. Aortic and hepatic chymase-dependent angiotensin II formations were significantly higher than those in the wild-type littermates. Three independent TGM lines showed the same phenotypic changes: elevation of blood pressure, left ventricular hypertrophy, emaciation with reduction in the lipid tissue, leukocytosis, and oligotrichia. The angiotensin II subtype 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist valsartan suppressed the elevated blood pressure completely and left ventricular hypertrophy incompletely, but did not affect the other phenotypes. These data suggested that in vivo expression of h-chymase caused mild hypertension (AT1 receptor-dependent) with left ventricular hypertrophy (partially AT1 receptor-dependent), and also chronic inflammatory changes (AT1 receptor-independent).

Animals↗

Pathologic features of acquired immunodeficiency-like syndrome in cats experimentally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus.

Five specific pathogen free cats were inoculated with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) isolated in Japan to observe changes toward development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-like disease. All inoculated cats had lymphadenopathy and mild respiratory disease shortly after inoculation. Following the initial acute phase lasting for more than 40 weeks, the clinical signs gradually diminished in three animals, and the asymptomatic carrier (AC) stage was observed at 45 (1 cat) and 70 (2 cats) weeks postinoculation (p.i.). Two of the three cats developed respiratory signs and diarrhea at 105 or 106 weeks p.i. One cat died at 121 weeks p.i. with severe wasting, with necropsy findings consistent with AIDS-related complex (ARC). The others were surviving at 150 weeks p.i. with mild clinical signs or asymptomatic. Another group of two cats developed more severe illness without the AC phase. One died at 48 weeks p.i. with the ARC illness. The other cat developed marked emaciation with diarrhea at 75 weeks p.i., and died at 100 weeks p.i. with a histologic diagnosis suggestive of terminal immunodeficiency. Histologically, the lymph nodes showed serial changes toward the terminal illness, from follicular hyperplasia at the acute phase to the lymphoid depletion at the ARC and AIDS-like terminal stages. The FIV antigen was demonstrated in the lymph nodes. The virus was isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of all the inoculated animals. These data demonstrated possible etiologic association of FIV with development of AIDS-like disorders in the cat.

Animals↗

Wasting condition under normal cardiac rhythms in rabbits following Strongyloides papillosus infection.

Pathogenicity of Strongyloides papillosus to rabbits was investigated by monitoring of food intake, body weight and electrocardiogram. No abnormalities were observed in rabbits infected with 10(4) infective larvae (L3)/kg. Rabbits given 10(5) L3/kg exhibited anorexia after the establishment of patent infections. Four of them died on Days 19-33 having lost 32-44% of initial body weight. The other one animal regained appetite and body weight as fecal egg output decreased. Cardiac rhythms remained normal even in the emaciation state. In lethal cases, cardiac activities finally disappeared through escape beats preceded by sinus arrhythmia as in a fasted control. These results suggest that heavy S. papillosus infection produces a wasting condition in rabbits resulting from anorexia under normal cardiac functions.

Animals↗

The first case of equine motor neuron disease in Japan.

A 9-year-old male horse showed emaciation, weakness and trembling and was euthanatized. Histopathological examinations revealed loss, swelling and chromatolysis of motor neurons throughout the spinal ventral horns, axonal degeneration of the ventral spinal roots. Eosinophilic cytoplasmic inclusions were distributed in degenerated spinal ventral neurons. Ultrastructurally, the inclusions consisted of aggregations of granular dense material and a few vesicles. They reacted positively with polyclonal antibody against ubiquitin. The present case was diagnosed as equine motor neuron disease, which has recently been reported in North America and the United Kingdom.

Animals↗

An outbreak of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome in Japan.

An emerging swine disease principally involving periweaning piglets was examined. The disease was clinically characterized by lethargy, fever, emaciation, coughing, and severe abdominal breathing, hence colloquially named "Heko-heko" disease. The consistent lesions in affected piglets were diffuse interstitial pneumonia with pronounced type II pneumocytic proliferation, meningoencephalitis, and regression of the lymphoid tissues. The causal virus was isolated in primary porcine lung cell (PLC) cultures from various organs of affected piglets and showed serological relatedness to the European porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus. Numerous virus particles, measured about 49 nm in diameter, were detected in the cytoplasm of alveolar epithelial cells and pulmonary macrophages in PLC cultures infected with the isolate. The condition could be experimentally reproduced in conventional piglets by intranasal inoculation with the isolate and the virus was reisolated from the infected animals.

Animals↗

Pathological findings of nude mice inoculated with bovine Neospora.

Nude mice were infested with bovine Neospora by intraperitoneal inoculation of the brain and spinal cord from an aborted bovine fetus due to neosporosis. Inoculated mice showed severe emaciation and tetraplegia at about 2 to 4 months post-inoculation. Histopathologically, polyradiculoneuritis and peripheral neuritis were the major findings, and lesions in the central nervous system were located at periventricular and submeningeal areas of the cerebrum or at the white matter around the roots of radices of the spinal cord. These findings may suggest the protozoa inoculated into the abdominal cavity invaded the spinal cord via the spinal nerve and later reached the brain through the cerebrospinal fluid.

Animals↗

Eight-year observation and comparative study of specific pathogen-free cats experimentally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) subtypes A and B: terminal acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in a cat infected with FIV petaluma strain.

Three specific pathogen-free cats experimentally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) strains Petaluma, TM1 and TM2, respectively were observed for over 8 years. Without showing any significant clinical signs of immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) for 8 years and 4 months of asymptomatic phase, the Petaluma-infected cat exhibited severe stomatitis/gingivitis, anorexia, emaciation, hematological and immunological disorders such as severe anemia, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, and decrease of CD4/CD8 ratio to 0.075, and finally died with hemoperitoneum at 8 years and 8 months post-infection. Histopathological studies revealed that the cat had systemic lymphoid atrophy and bone marrow disorders indicating acute myelocytic leukemia (aleukemic type). Plasma viral titer of the cat at AIDS phase was considerably high and anti-FIV antibody titer was slightly low as compared with the other FIV-infected cats. In addition, immunoblotting analysis using serially collected serum/plasma samples of these cats revealed that antibodies against FIV proteins were induced in all the infected cats, however in the Petaluma-infected cat anti-Gag antibodies disappeared during the asymptomatic period. These results suggested that plasma viral load and anti-FIV Gag antibody response correlated with disease progression, and supported FIV-infected cats as a suitable animal model of human AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Listeriosis in a raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) associated with canine distemper.

A wild raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) that manifested severe illness and died was examined. Necropsy revealed severe emaciation, systemic icterus and petechial hemorrhages on the mucous membranes. Histopathologically, necroses were seen in the liver and brain stem associated with meningitis. Eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the spleen and intestinal mucosa, and eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies were seen in transitional epithelium in the bladder. Listeria monocytogenes 4b was isolated from the liver, spleen, kidneys and lungs, and the pathogen was also detected in the liver and brain stem immunohistopathologically. The disease was diagnosed as listeriosis associated with canine distemper virus infection in a raccoon dog.

Animals↗