Diurnal variations of pituitary and testicular hormones in paraplegic men

The effect of the neuro-spinal cord injury upon testicular physiology was evaluated in six adult paraplegic (PPG) men by measuring the circulating levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), prolactin (PRL), androstenedione, testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone every 4 hr throughout a 24-hr period. Three PPG men were studied within the first 3 months (acute period) and the other three patients 39-79 months (stabilized period) after trauma. Hormonal values were compared with eight age-matched normal adult males. Plasma FSH and LH were constantly above normal concentrations regardless of the sampling time and period of observation, whereas prolactin was higher than normal only during the first two months after trauma, returning to normal afterwards. Plasma androgens were consistently below normal during the first 3 months after injury, and returned toward normal thereafter. There may be a direct relationship between the time elapsed after the spinal cord injury and the plasma androgens concentrations. A possible role of PRL in testicular steroidogenesis is suggested.

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) infection in captive white-collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) from Uruguay

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a major cause of acute hepatitis worldwide. Clinical presentation of hepatitis E mainly occurs as an acute and self-limited disease, though chronic cases are now being commonly reported in immunocompromised individuals. In high-income developed areas and non-endemic regions, HEV is mainly transmitted by the zoonotic route through direct contact with infected animals or by consumption of contaminated meat products. Although pigs and wild boars are the main reservoirs of the disease, HEV can also infect deer, camels, and rats and seems to have an ever-expanding host range. Peccaries (Tayassuidae family, superfamily Suoidea), the 'new world pigs', share susceptibility to several pathogens with domestic pigs and wild boars. Herein, we performed a serological and molecular survey of two captive populations of white-collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) from Uruguay, with the aim to assess the role of the species as an HEV reservoir. One-hundred and one serum samples were analysed for anti-HEV antibodies. Further evidences of active HEV infection were investigated in stool by RT-nested PCR. Animals from both wildlife reserves were exposed to HEV with an overall prevalence of 24.7%. Moreover, HEV RNA could be detected in peccaries' stool samples from one of the reserves. Phylogenetic analysis clustered the strains within HEV-3, closely related to both human and swine isolates. Our work provides the first evidences supporting the notion that white-collared peccaries are susceptible to HEV. However, these data should not be overinterpreted. Further research is needed concerning the role of peccaries in the transmission of HEV.

[Purine metabolism in ankylosing spondylitis: clinical study]

We undertook a prospective study of 23 male patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) (New York Criteria), 18 HLA-B27 positive and 5 HLA-B27 negative, five of them had hyperuricemia. The following data of evolution were taken into consideration: age at onset of disease, time course of the disease, presence of urolithiasis, heart disease, flares of uveitis. Clinical activity and degree of disability were evaluated every one to 3 months; on each visit, every patient had determinations of serum and urinary uric acid levels, serum and phosphorus, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), serum protein electrophoresis, as well as X-ray films of the vertebral spine and pelvis. Three groups of patients were detected, all of them with equal age at onset, duration of disease, frequency of B27, peripheral arthritis, and leukocytosis. One group had hyperuricemia (5 of 23 patients, 80% of them HLA-B27 positive) and a lesser degree of clinical activity of the disease (p less than .001, a higher frequency of uveitis (40%, lower levels of serum gammaglobulins (p less than 0.05) and ESR (p less than 0.05), a lesser degree of ankylosis of the spine, and a better functional prognosis than the other groups. Another group (8 of 23 patients, 75% of them were HLA-B27 positive) had normouricemia and hyperuricosuria, and showed a higher frequency of fever (50%), an abnormal urinalysis, and urolithiasis (25%).