We compared the effectiveness of different types of non-commercial neutral oral contrast agents for bowel distension and mural visualisation in computed tomographic (CT) enterography.
Introduction: Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a clonal haematological neoplasm characterised by proliferation of immature myeloid cells in the bone marrow resulting in impairment normal cell development in bone marrow. This leads to anaemia, thrombocytopenia and neutropenia. AML primarily affects older adults, with a median age at diagnosis of 69 years but is also seen in all other age groups. AML is recognized as a kind of cancer with marked heterogeneity in both biology of the cells and reactions to treatment. Treatment with intensive chemotherapy regi-mens of adult AML patients who are ≤ 60 years old results in hematologic remission in about 35% of patients, but at least 30% of these patients will experience a relapse. Mechanism leading to early relapse is still unclear. Leukaemia stem cell (LSC) is shown to correlate with poor prognosis. Biomarkers such as aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and CD34+CD38- have been identified as potential LSC biomarkers in previous studies. The objective of this study is to examine the expression of such markers for LSC and determine the association. Methods: Peripheral blood or bone marrow samples from untreated, newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemias of all age, gender and race were collect-ed from Hospital Melaka and Kelang. Diagnosis of AML is based on WHO classification which include morphology, cytochemistry, immunophenotyping and cytogenetics. Mononuclear cells were isolated from bone marrow aspirate samples by gradient density centrifugation on Ficoll-Hypaque. Immunophenotyping using CD13, CD14, CD33, CD34, CD38 and ALDH were carried out to identify the presence and proportion of the various populations of inter-est. Results: There was a strong, positive correlation between ALDH and CD34+CD38- cell population, which was statistically significant (rs = 0.5989, p< 0.05). Conclusion: The strong correlation of ALDH activity and CD34+CD38- expression supported the potential of these biomarkers to identify LSCs cell in AML patients. However, due to the heterogeneity of AML, further studies using more markers and larger sample size are needed to determine the validity and to correlate with disease-free survival rate of AML patients.
Objective: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent, non-haematopoietic stem cells that are
capable of differentiating into different varieties of mature cell types such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and myoblasts. There is abundant evidence showing that MSC not only affect the differentiation of haematopoietic progenitors, but also the function of mature cells like lymphocytes and neutrophils. However the effect of MSC on neutrophil function and its responses is not well studied. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the effect of MSC on neutrophil nitric oxide production. Method: Neutrophils from heparanised venous blood were isolated using Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation followed by Dextran sedimentation and red blood cell (RBC) lysis. Isolated neutrophils were on average of 97% purity as determined by morphologic analysis. MSC were generated from human bone marrow and characterised by immunophenotyping (monoclonal antibodies CD105, CD73 and CD34) using a flowcytometer. In order to test the effects of MSC on neutrophil function, isolated neutrophils were co-cultured in the presence or absence of MSC at different ratios for 24 and 48 hours. The amount of nitric oxide released was used as an indication of oxidative burst and measured using the Griess assay. Result: The results indicate that MSC neither elevate the NO level when cocultured with resting neutrophils nor alone. However MSC profoundly inhibit the secretion of nitric oxide in PMA stimulated neutrophils after 24hr of incubation. Conclusion: MSC exert an immunomodulatory effect on neutrophil by suppressing neutrophil oxidative burst in vitro.
The objectives of this study are to assess pediatric radiation exposure in certain barium studies and to quantify the organ and effective doses and radiation risk resultant from patients' irradiation. A total of 69 pediatric barium studies for upper and lower gastrointestinal tract. Patients' radiation dose was quantified in terms of Entrance surface air kerma (ESAKs) using exposure parameters and DosCal software. Organ and effective doses (E) were extrapolated using national Radiological Protection Board software (NRPB-R279). The mean ± (SD) and the range of patient doses per procedure were 3.7 ± 0.4 (1.0-13.0)mGy, 7.4 ± 1.7(5.5-8.0)mGy and 1.4 ± 0.9 (0.5-3.6)mGy for barium meal, swallow and enema, respectively. The mean effective doses were 0.3 ± 0.03 (0.08-1.1)mSv, 0.2 ± 1.6 (0.44-0.7)mSv and 0.3 ± 0.9 (0.1-0.8)mSv at the same order. The radiation dose were higher compared to previous studies. Therefore, pediatrics are exposed to avoidable radiation exposure. Certain optimization measures are recommended along with establishing national diagnostic reference level (DRL) to reduce the radiation risk.