Closure of large wounds using rubber bands in rabbits

OBJECTIVE: to verify the effectiveness of the rubber elastic band in the treatment of large wounds of the body wall of rabbits by means of traction of its edges. METHODS: we studied 30 New Zealand rabbits, divided into three groups (n=10): Group 1- healing by secondary intention; Group 2- removal and eutopic repositioning of skin as full thickness skin graft; Group 3- Approximation of wound edges with elastic rubber band. In all animals, we removed a segment of the back skin and subcutaneous tissue down to the fascia, in accordance with an acrylic mold of 8cm long by 12cm wide. All animals were observed for 21 days. RESULTS: two animals of groups 1 and 2 had wound abscess. In Group 2, there was partial or total graft loss in 90% of animals. The complete closure of the wounds was observed in four animals of Group 1, six of Group 2 and eight of Group 3. There was no difference between the scar resistance values of groups 2 and 3, which were higher than those in Group 1. The scars of the three groups were characterized by the presence of mature connective tissue mixed with blood vessels and inflammatory infiltration, predominantly polymorphonuclear. CONCLUSION: the tensile strength of the wound edges with rubber elastic band is as efficient as the skin graft to treat rabbits' large body wounds.

Outbreak of infectious laryngotracheitis in large multi-age egg layer chicken flocks in Minas Gerais, Brazil

A recent (November 2010) outbreak of infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT) in a multi-age laying hen facility in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, is described. Previous ILT outbreak in laying hens was only notified in São Paulo state, Brazil, in 2002. In the outbreak described here, the affected population was approximately eight million hens, with flock sizes ranging from 100,000 to 2,900,000 chickens. The average mortality ranged from 1 to 6%, and morbidity was around 90% (most of the twenty seven farms of the area were positive for ILT virus). Three multi-age laying farms from one company were selected for this report. Clinical signs included prostration, dyspnea, conjunctivitis, occasional swelling of the paranasal sinuses and bloody mucous nasal discharge. Severely affected chickens presented with dyspnea, gasping and became cyanotic before death. At necropsy, these chickens had fibrinous exudate blocking the larynx and the lumen of cranial part of the trachea. In addition, conjunctivitis with intense hyperemia, edema and sinuses with caseous exudate were present. On histopathology, there were marked necrosis and desquamation of respiratory ephitelium and conjunctiva with numerous syncytial cells formation and fibrinous exudate. Moderate to marked non suppurative (especially lymphocytes and plasma cells) infiltration in the lamina propria also was observed. Sixteen out of 20 examined chickens, eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies were observed in the syncytial cells. The DNA extracted from larynx and trachea produced positive PCR results for ILT virus (ILTV) DNA using formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples. Amplicons from a small region of ICP4 gene were submitted to sequencing and showed 100% identity with ILTV EU104910.1 (USA strain), 99% with ILTV JN596963.1 (Australian strain) and 91% with ILTV JN580316.1 (Gallid herpesvirus 1 CEO vaccine strain) and JN580315.1 (Gallid herpesvirus 1 TCO vaccine strain).

Horizontal Slug Flow in a Large-Size Pipeline: Experimentation and Modeling

The knowledge of the slug flow characteristics is very important when designing pipelines and process equipment. When the intermittences typical in slug flow occurs, the fluctuations of the flow variables bring additional concern to the designer. Focusing on this subject the present work discloses the experimental data on slug flow characteristics occurring in a large-size, large-scale facility. The results were compared with data provided by mechanistic slug flow models in order to verify their reliability when modelling actual flow conditions. Experiments were done with natural gas and oil or water as the liquid phase. To compute the frequency and velocity of the slug cell and to calculate the length of the elongated bubble and liquid slug one used two pressure transducers measuring the pressure drop across the pipe diameter at different axial locations. A third pressure transducer measured the pressure drop between two axial location 200 m apart. The experimental data were compared with results of Camargo's1 algorithm (1991, 1993), which uses the basics of Dukler & Hubbard's (1975) slug flow model, and those calculated by the transient two-phase flow simulator OLGA.

Large-scale production and purification of recombinant protein from an insect cell/baculovirus system in Erlenmeyer flasks: application to the chicken poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase catalytic domain

A simple and inexpensive shaker/Erlenmeyer flask system for large-scale cultivation of insect cells is described and compared to a commercial spinner system. On the basis of maximum cell density, average population doubling time and overproduction of recombinant protein, a better result was obtained with a simpler and less expensive bioreactor consisting of Erlenmeyer flasks and an ordinary shaker waterbath. Routinely, about 90 mg of pure poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase catalytic domain was obtained for a total of 3 x 109 infected cells in three liters of culture

Results of CHOP chemotherapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated in a University Hospital were studied from 1990 to 2001. Two treatment regimens were used: ProMACE-CytaBOM and then, from November 1996 on, the CHOP regimen. Complete remission (CR), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) rates were determined. Primary refractory patients and relapsed patients were also assessed. A total of 111 patients under 60 years of age were assessed and ranked according to the international prognostic index adjusted to age. Twenty (18%) of them were classified as low risk, 40 (36%) as intermediate risk, 33 (29.7%) as high intermediate risk, and 18 (16.3%) as high risk. Over a five-year period, OS and DFS rates were 71 and 59%, respectively, for all patients. For the same time period, OS and DFS rates were 72.8 and 61.3%, respectively, for 77 patients treated with CHOP chemotherapy and 71.3 and 60% for patients treated with the ProMACE-CytaBOM protocol. There was no significant difference in OS or DFS between the two groups. Eleven of 50 refractory and relapsed patients were consolidated with high doses of chemotherapy. Three received allogenic and 8 autologous bone marrow transplantation. For the latter, CR was 62.5% and mean OS was 41.1 months. The clinical behavior, CR, DFS, and OS of the present patients were similar to those reported in the literature. We conclude that both the CHOP and ProMACE-CytaBOM protocols can be used to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients, although the CHOP protocol is preferable because of its lower cost and lower toxicity.

p53 immunostaining is correlated with reduced survival and is not correlated with gene mutations in resected pulmonary large cell carcinomas

Malignancy of pulmonary large cell carcinomas (LCC) increases from classic LCC through LCC with neuroendocrine morphology (LCCNM) to large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (LCNEC). However, the histological classification has sometimes proved to be difficult. Because the malignancy of LCC is highly dependent on proteins with functions in the cell cycle, DNA repair, and apoptosis, p53 has been targeted as a potentially useful biological marker. p53 mutations in lung cancers have been shown to result in expression and protein expression also occurs in the absence of mutations. To validate the importance of both p53 protein expression (by immunostaining) and p53 gene mutations in lung LCC (by PCR-single strand conformational polymorphism analysis of exons 5, 6, 7, and 8) and to study their relationships with clinical factors and sub-classification we investigated the correlation of p53 abnormalities in 15 patients with LCC (5 classic LCC, 5 LCNEC, and 5 LCCNM) who had undergone resection with curative intent. Of these patients, 5/15 expressed p53 and none had mutant p53 sequences. There was a negative survival correlation with positive p53 immunostaining (P = 0.05). After adjustment for stage, age, gender, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and histological subtypes by multivariate analysis, p53 expression had an independent impact on survival. The present study indicates that p53 assessment may provide an objective marker for the prognosis of LCC irrespective of morphological variants and suggests that p53 expression is important for outcome prediction in patients with the early stages of LCC. The results reported here should be considered to be initial results because tumors from only 15 patients were studied: 5 each from LCC, LCNEC and LCCNM. This was due to the rarity of these specific diseases.

Sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer: results in a large series

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is an appropriate method for the evaluation of axillary status in cases of early breast cancer. We report our experience in treating cases evaluated using SLNB. We analyzed a total of 1192 cases assessed by means of SLNB from July 1999 to December 2007. SLNB processing was successfully completed in 1154 cases with the use of blue dye or radiolabeled 99mTc-Dextran-500, or both. Of these 1154 patients, 857 were N0(i-) (no regional lymph node metastasis, negative immunohistochemistry, IHC), 96 were N0(i+) (no regional lymph node metastasis histologically, positive IHC, no IHC cluster greater than 0.2 mm) and 201 were N1mi (greater than 0.2 mm, none greater than 2.0 mm). Most of the tumors (70%) were invasive ductal carcinomas and tumors were staged as T1 in 770 patients (65%). A total of 274 patients underwent SLNB and axillary dissections up to April 2003. The inclusion criteria were tumor size equal to or less than 3 cm in diameter, no clinically palpable axillary lymph nodes, no neoadjuvant therapy. In 19 cases, the SLN could not be identified intraoperatively. A false-negative rate of 11% and a negative predictive value of 88.2% were obtained for the 255 assessable patients. The overall concordance between SLNB and axillary lymph node status was 92%. SLNB sensitivity for nodes was 81% and specificity was 100%. The higher sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and lower false-negative rates of SLNB suggest that this method may be an appropriate alternative to total axillary dissection in early breast cancer patients.

Cytogenetic studies of Brazilian pediatric myelodysplastic syndrome cases: challenges and difficulties in a large and emerging country

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) are rare hematopoietic stem cell diseases affecting children. Cytogenetics plays an important role in the diagnosis of these diseases. We report here the experience of the Cytogenetic Subcommittee of the Brazilian Cooperative Group on Pediatric Myelodysplastic Syndromes (BCG-MDS-PED). We analyzed 168 cytogenetic studies performed in 23 different cytogenetic centers; 84 of these studies were performed in patients with confirmed MDS (primary MDS, secondary MDS, JMML, and acute myeloid leukemia/MDS+Down syndrome). Clonal abnormalities were found in 36.9% of the MDS cases and cytogenetic studies were important for the detection of constitutional diseases and for differential diagnosis with other myeloid neoplasms. These data show the importance of the Cooperative Group for continuing education in order to avoid a late or wrong diagnosis.