Effect of maternal feed intake during mid-gestation on pig performance, meat quality and muscle fiber development

Increasing feed allowance during gestation has been related with changes in muscle fiber development and pig performance post-natally, affecting meat quality traits at slaughter

A case of capecitabine-induced coronary microspasm in a patient with rectal cancer

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the most frequently used chemotherapy agent concomitant with radiotherapy in the management of patients with rectal cancer. Capecitabine is an oral fluoropyrimidine that mimics the pharmaconkinetics of infusional 5-FU. This new drug is replacing 5-FU as a part of the combined-modality treatment of a number of gastrointestinal cancers. While cardiac events associated with the use of 5-FU are a well known side effect, capecitabine-induced cardiotoxicity has been only rarely reported. Here, we reviewed the case of a patient with rectal cancer who had a capecitabine-induced coronary vasospasm. The most prominent mutation of the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase gene was also analyzed

Evaluation of the capability of the PCV2 genome to encode miRNAs : lack of viral miRNA expression in an experimental infection

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is a ssDNA virus causing PCV2-systemic disease (PCV2-SD), one of the most important diseases in swine. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Viral miRNAs have recently been described and the number of viral miRNAs has been increasing in the past few years. In this study, small RNA libraries were constructed from two tissues of subclinically PCV2 infected pigs to explore if PCV2 can encode viral miRNAs. The deep sequencing data revealed that PCV2 does not express miRNAs in an in vivo subclinical infection

Estudio ecocardiográfico y de la concentración de NT-proBNP en pacientes diabéticos tipo 2 con y sin cardiopatía isquémica

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in echocardiographic findings or in the level of a biochemical marker (i.e. N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide [NT-proBNP]) between controls and type-2 diabetic patients with or without ischemic heart disease. Echocardiography was used to assess left ventricular function and morphology. In addition, the plasma NT-proBNP concentration was measured. The prevalence of diastolic dysfunction was greater in diabetics without ischemic heart disease than in controls (88% vs. 74%, respectively; P< .001) and the NT-proBNP concentration was higher (350.6+/-197.8 vs. 281.7+/-190.4 fmol/mL; P< .001). Diabetics with ischemic heart disease had a higher NT-proBNP concentration than those without (720.4+/-278.1 vs. 350.6+/-197.8 fmol/mL, respectively; P< .001). An NT-proBNP concentration >490 fmol/mL had a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 75% for detecting ischemic heart disease in diabetics