Evaluation of Mollicutes Microorganisms in Respiratory Disease of Cattle and Their Relationship to Clinical Signs

Background

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is an important problem in cattle production that is responsible for economic losses in dairy herds. Mycoplasma spp. are described as an important etiological agent of BRD.

Hypothesis

To evaluate the occurrence of the most important mycoplasmas in the lower respiratory tract of healthy and BRD cattle in relationship to clinical signs of BRD.

Animals

Sixty young dairy cattle were classified as healthy (n = 32) or cattle showing clinical signs of BRD (n = 28).

Methods

Tracheal lavage samples were collected and added to tubes containing Hayflick media. Mycoplasma spp. were identified by the presence of “fried egg” like colonies, biochemical tests and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Occurrence of Mollicutes, M. bovis, M. mycoides subsp. mycoides SC and M. dispar was evaluated. The association between clinical signs of BRD and the presence of Mycoplasma spp. also was evaluated.

Results

Colonies were obtained from a 1‐year‐old BRD calf only. However, species identification was not possible. Mollicutes (P = .035) and M. dispar (P = .036) were more common in BRD cattle. The relationship between Mollicutes and crackle (P = .057) was not significant. M. dispar was associated to tachypnea (P = .045) and mixed dyspnea (P = .003). Relationships to heart rate (P = .062) and crackle (P = .062) were not significant.

Conclusions and clinical importance

The results confirmed the importance of mycoplasma as an etiologic agent of BRD and suggested M. dispar as part of the respiratory microbiota and its possible role in the development of BRD.

72 EFFECT OF PROGESTERONE SUPPLEMENTATION ON DAY 4 AFTER TIMED ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION ON PREGNANCY RATE OF LACTATING DAIRY COWS

Progesterone plays an important role in the maintenance of pregnancy. It is hypothesised that insufficient progesterone early in pregnancy may result in embryonic loss, and that supplemental progesterone would decrease pregnancy loss in dairy cows. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of progesterone supplementation after timed AI on pregnancy rate of dairy cows. The experiment was conducted in a single commercial herd, in Sao Paulo State (Brazil), during a period of 1 year (January–December 2016). The cows were assigned at a nonpregnancy diagnosis 32 ± 3 days after AI to 1 to 6 resynchronization treatments. They were submitted to the same fixed time AI protocol: Day 0, 0.1 mg of gonadorelin, 2 mg of oestradiol benzoate, and an intravaginal device of 1.9 g of progesterone; Day 7, 25 mg of dinoprost tromethamine; Day 8, 25 mg of dinoprost tromethamine, 1 mg of oestradiol cipionate, and device withdrawal; Day 10, AI. At Day 14, the cows were alternately arranged in 2 groups. Group 1 received a 900-mg progesterone supplementation IM injection, and Group 2 did not receive progesterone supplementation. Then, 32 ± 3 days after insemination, pregnancy diagnosis was performed by transrectal ultrasonography, and the data were tabulated. Full statistical analysis will be done at the end of the study, when more than 500 cows will be allocated to the 2 groups. From January until April 2016, 230 lactating dairy cows were submitted to the experiment. Both groups had similar average days in lactation (166), average number of lactations (1.95), and average number of inseminations (4.3). Group 1 had a pregnancy rate of 25% (29/116), and group 2 had a pregnancy rate of 15.8% (18/114) (P = 0.01, one-way ANOVA). Based on these preliminary data, pregnancy rates of lactating dairy cows may be improved with progesterone supplementation on Day 4 after insemination. These results need to be confirmed on larger numbers of cows.

Fine needle aspiration cytology of 650 thyroid nodules operated for multinodular goiter: a cyto-histological correlation based on the new Italian cytological classification (siapec 2014)

The new Italian cytological classification (SIAPEC 2014) of thyroid nodules, in line with those of Bethesda and BTA-RCPath, replaces the previous TIR3 class with two new classes (TIR3A and TIR3B), which correspond to different risks of malignancy and clinical actions required. The present study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the new SIAPEC classification as opposed to its previous version (SIAPEC 2007). Preoperative cytology was compared with the final histology obtained from 650 consecutive patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for multinodular goiter. Of this total, 434 patients (group A) had their cytological diagnosis based on the old SIAPEC 2007 classification and 216 patients (group B) had their cytological diagnosis based on the SIAPEC 2014 classification. In group A 111 patients (25.6%) had a TIR3 diagnosis, while in group B 52 patients (24.1%) received a TIR3 diagnosis, of whom 30 had TIR3A and 22 had TIR3B. In group A, 46 (41.4%) out of the 111 patients with TIR3 diagnosis had, based on histology, a thyroid carcinoma. In group B, only 2 (6.7%) out of 30 patients with TIR3A diagnosis had a thyroid carcinoma. This rate of malignancy was significantly lower (p less than 0.001) than that observed in patients with TIR3B diagnosis, in which 12 (54.5%) out of 22 patients had a carcinoma. The observations here reported show that, in respect to the previous version, the new Italian cytological classification provides greater diagnostic accuracy for detecting thyroid nodule malignancy.

Total thyroidectomy in geriatric patients: a retrospective study

In the English literature there is no single definition that identifies elderly patients. In our retrospective study, we divided total thyroidectomized patients operated on from 2000 to 2010 in the Department of Surgical Sciences of the "Sapienza" University of Rome, in two groups: group 1 consists of 448 patients over 65 years and group 2 consists of 1275 patients under 65 years. We compared both groups in terms of indications for surgery, histological diagnoses, postoperative complications (laryngeal nerv palsy, hypocalcemia, bleeding and seroma) and mortality. The results showed no statistically significant differences between the two groups with respect to the type of surgical indication, the type of comorbidities, the incidence of postoperative complications and perioperative mortality. The only data discordant with those in the international literature was the incidence of neoplastic disease that is found to be slightly greater in group 2. In conclusion, total thyroidectomy in patients over 65 years is a safe procedure and is not burdened with a higher percentage of postoperative complications, even if requires a careful preoperative assessment of risk factors related to comorbidity.

Fatigue in patients undergoing radiation therapy: an observational study

AIM

Fatigue can be defined as an unpleasant feeling of tiredness, weakness and lack of energy. It is found in about 80% of the patients receiving radiation therapy and has a significant impact on quality of life. The aim of this paper was to assess the frequency, severity and changes of fatigue before, during and after administration of a nutraceutical (mixture of whey protein with an high biological value, with an high content in native cysteine, albumin and lactoferrin in patients undergoing treatment for breast and prostate cancer.

METHODS

Thirty patients (20 breast and 10 prostate ones) were enrolled in our test and they received a questionnaire about Fatigue developed by the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1999. The patients who achieved a score between 4 and 6 were administered the nutraceutical (Prother) at a dose of 20 g / day for the first 10 days of radiation treatment and then 10 g/day for the following 20 days without considering the terms of the radiation oncology treatment [corrected]. Each patient was reassessed using the same Fatigue test after 10 and 30 days from the start of the administration of nutraceutical. We enrolled 30 control patients who did not receive Prother.

RESULTS

The results showed the effectiveness of Prother in all patients with moderate-to-mild fatigue.

CONCLUSION

The administration of Prother has therefore been effective in terms of both improving the compliance of the radiation treatment and the quality of life.

Preliminary experience of a predictive model to define rectal volume and rectal dose during the treatment of prostate cancer

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to define a method to evaluate the total dose delivered to the rectum during the whole treatment course in six patients undergoing irradiation for prostate cancer using an offline definition of organ motion with images from a cone beam CT (CBCT) scanner available on a commercial linear accelerator.

METHODS

Patient set-up was verified using a volumetric three-dimensional CBCT scanner; 9-14 CBCT scans were obtained for each patient. Images were transferred to a commercial treatment planning system for offline organ motion analysis. The shape of the rectums were used to obtain a mean dose-volume histogram (<DVH>), which was the average of the DVHs of the rectums as they appeared in each verification CBCT. A geometric model of an average rectum (AR) was produced using the rectal contours delineated on the CBCT scans (DVH(AR)). To check whether the first week of treatment was representative of the whole treatment course, we evaluated the DVHs related to only the first five CBCT scans (<DVH5> and DVH(AR5)). Finally, the influence of a dietary protocol on the goodness of our results was considered.

RESULTS

In all six patients the original rectal DVH for the planning CT scan showed higher values than all DVHs.

CONCLUSION

Although the application of the model to a larger set of patients is necessary to confirm this trend, reconstruction of a representative volume of the rectum throughout the entire treatment course seems feasible.

Focus on Fotemustine

Fotemustine is a cytotoxic alkylating agent, belonging to the group of nitrosourea family. Its mechanism of action is similar to that of other nitrosoureas, characterized by a mono-functional/bi-functional alkylating activity. Worth of consideration is the finding that the presence of high levels of the DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT) in cancer cells confers drug resistance. In different clinical trials Fotemustine showed a remarkable antitumor activity as single agent, and in association with other antineoplastic compounds or treatment modalities. Moreover, its toxicity is generally considered acceptable. The drug has been employed in the treatment of metastatic melanoma, and, on the basis of its pharmacokinetic properties, in brain tumors, either primitive or metastatic. Moreover, Fotemustine shows pharmacodynamic properties similar to those of mono-functional alkylating compounds (e.g. DNA methylating drugs, such as Temozolomide), that have been recently considered for the management of acute refractory leukaemia. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that this agent could be a good candidate to play a potential role in haematological malignancies.