Incidence of Acute Rejection Compared With Endomyocardial Biopsy Complications for Heart Transplant Patients in the Contemporary Era.

Background: The reference standard of detecting acute rejection (AR) in adult heart transplant (HTx) patients is an endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). The majority of EMBs are performed in asymptomatic patients. However, the incidence of treated AR compared with EMB complications has not been compared in the contemporary era (2010-current).

Benefit versus Risk of Endomyocardial Biopsy for Heart Transplant Patients in the Contemporary Era.

Background: The reference standard of detecting acute rejection (AR) in adult heart transplant (HTx) patients is an endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). The majority of EMBs are performed in asymptomatic patients. However, the benefit of diagnosing and treating AR compared to the risk of EMB complications has not been compared in the contemporary era (2010-current).

Comparison of two donor-derived cell-free DNA tests and a blood gene-expression profile test in heart transplantation.

Background: Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) testing is an emerging screening modality for noninvasive detection of acute rejection (AR). This study compared the testing accuracy for AR of two commercially available dd-cfDNA and gene-expression profiling (GEP) testing in heart transplant (HTx) recipients.

Methods: This is a retrospective, observational study of HTx only patients who underwent standard and expanded single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dd-cfDNA between October 2020 to January 2022.

Net energy prediction and energy efficiency of feed for broiler chickens.

Global consumption of chicken meat has increased at a faster rate than any other animal protein source, and thus refinements in energy formulation techniques for feed have continued to gain importance. Formulation of animal feed based on net energy (NE) has been implemented in ruminants and pigs but not in poultry. A closed-circuit respiratory calorimetry system was employed on 25- to 28-day-old broilers fed 19 diets formulated with varying nutrient composition to produce equations to predict NE and apparent metabolizable energy (AME) efficiency of feed for broiler chickens.

Dynamics of intestinal metabolites and morphology in response to necrotic enteritis challenge in broiler chickens.

Despite the relatively small contribution to metabolizable energy that volatile fatty acids (VFAs) provide in chickens, these organic acids have been reported to play beneficial roles in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of birds, for example, inhibition of the growth of some pathogenic bacteria. However, information regarding the dynamics of these metabolites in the GIT of chickens is still scarce, especially under disease conditions such as necrotic enteritis (NE). Here, we investigated the dynamics of VFAs and lactic acid, and intestinal morphology in response to NE predisposing factors, that is, excessive dietary fishmeal and Eimeria inoculation, and causative agent Clostridium perfringens producing NetB toxin.

A Multifactorial Analysis of the Extent to Which Eimeria and Fishmeal Predispose Broiler Chickens to Necrotic Enteritis.

Necrotic enteritis (NE) is an important infectious disease in chickens. Predisposing factors play critical roles both in disease outbreaks in the field and in models for experimental induction of disease. Systematic manipulation and study of predisposing factors help to optimize methods for the experimental reproduction of disease.

Differential responses of cecal microbiota to fishmeal, Eimeria and Clostridium perfringens in a necrotic enteritis challenge model in chickens.

Clostridium perfringens causes enteric diseases in animals and humans. In poultry, avian-specific C. perfringens strains cause necrotic enteritis, an economically significant poultry disease that costs the global industry over $2 billion annually in losses and control measures.

Two necrotic enteritis predisposing factors, dietary fishmeal and Eimeria infection, induce large changes in the caecal microbiota of broiler chickens.

It is widely established that a high-protein fishmeal supplemented starter diet and Eimeria infection can predispose birds to the development of clinical necrotic enteritis symptoms following Clostridium perfringens infection. However, it has not been clearly established what changes these treatments cause to predispose birds to succumb to necrotic enteritis. We analysed caecal microbiota of 4 groups of broilers (n=12) using deep pyrosequencing of 16S rDNA amplicons: (1) control chicks fed a control diet, (2) Eimeria infected chicks fed control diet, (3) chicks fed fishmeal supplemented diet and lastly (4) both fishmeal fed and Eimeria infected chicks.

Real-time PCR assay for Clostridium perfringens in broiler chickens in a challenge model of necrotic enteritis.

We compared ileal Clostridium perfringens quantification results produced by real-time PCR and culture-based methods in broiler chickens in a challenge model of necrotic enteritis. Assessment of the relative standard deviations (RSDs) revealed that the real-time PCR assay generated a smaller standard deviation and thus was more precise than the culture-based method. Linear regression analysis indicated that the bacterial counts of these two methods were highly correlated (R(2) = 0.

Optimized necrotic enteritis model producing clinical and subclinical infection of Clostridium perfringens in broiler chickens.

In this study we assessed the roles of Eimeria infection and dietary manipulation (feeding a diet with a high level of fishmeal) in an Australian necrotic enteritis (NE) challenge model in broiler chickens. An experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that Eimeria infection and dietary manipulation, i.e.

Erythema nodosum associated with diffuse, large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma detected by FDG PET.

A patient is described with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and erythematous skin nodules suspected to be erythema nodosum. The patient underwent serial fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET), which demonstrated normalization of FDG uptake by the lymphoma after 2 cycles of chemotherapy, but there was new abnormal uptake involving the subcutaneous tissues of the lower extremities. A typical skin lesion was sampled and showed the appearance of erythema nodosum with no evidence of lymphoma.