Carpal tunnel syndrome in HIV-positive patients coinfected with HCV

A wide range of rheumatic and peripheral nervous system disorders may develop in patients with HIV infection, leading to pain, sensory symptoms, and muscle weakness. Over the past three decades, the progress in management of HIV disease with anti-retroviral therapy (ART) has resulted in increased life expectancy for people living with HIV disease. With this new chronicity of the disease has a constellation of chronic musculoskeletal, orthopaedic and rheumatic manifestations has emerged, as potential complications of the disease itself and/or the results of ART treatment regimen and/or because of expected age-related symptoms/manifestations. The incidence of CTS in the general population is around 3.8% with clinical examination and, when electroneuromyography is used, it is 2.7%. In the HIV-positive population, the incidence is very close to that of the general population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of CTS and to identify factors influencing the development of CTS in HIV-infected patients attending our clinic. This syndrome has been associated with advanced HIV disease and the use of ART possibly due to an increased inflammatory state and the presence of concurrent HCV infection.

Effect of long-term feeding of soy-based diets on the pancreas of Cebus monkeys

Feeding soy-based protein containing trypsin inhibitor causes pancreatic hypertrophy in the rat, and long-term feeding (up to 2 years) has revealed a high incidence of adenoma following hypertrophy. It was therefore of interest to determine whether the ingestion of soy-based protein has any adverse effects on the primate pancreas. A resource of 27 Cebus albifrons monkeys, previously used to evaluate the protein quality of several soy and milk proteins, has been maintained on semi-synthetic diets for 3 to 4 years; the protein sources for the diets were casein, lactalbumin, soy isolate and soy concentrate. In general the monkeys were in good physical health and their weights were appropriate for age and sex. Serum biochemical and hematological profiles were normal and there were no major differences between the groups. A pancreatic biopsy from both the head and tail region of the pancreas was taken from each monkey. Visual observation of the pancreas revealed no overt pathology; two independent histological examinations indicated no diet-related differences between groups, and biochemical analyses of trypsin, chymotrypsin, protein, DNA and RNA revealed no differences. It is concluded that feeding low level trypsin inhibitor-containing diets for up to 4 years caused no adverse effects in the pancreas of the Cebus nonhuman primate.

The effects of long-term soy protein and milk protein feeding on the pancreas of Cebus albifrons monkeys

Twenty-seven 2- to 4-yr-old cebus monkeys (Cebus albifrons) were fed from infancy purified diets containing lactalbumin, soy isolate, casein or soy concentrate as the sole protein source. Hematologic and clinical chemistry values were similar for all groups. Head and tail portions of each pancreas were surgically removed for histopathologic evaluation and determination of protein, RNA and DNA content, and for trypsin and chymotrypsin activity. Hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections from 26 of 27 monkeys showed normal pancreatic tissue with occasional acinar vacuolation in all diet groups. The remaining animal, one of only two fed soy concentrate, had diffuse interstitial fibrosis of the pancreas associated with mild to moderate atrophy of acinar tissue. Biochemical analyses of the pancreatic biopsies indicated no group differences among animals fed lactalbumin, soy isolate or casein. One of two monkeys in the soy concentrate group showed decreased pancreatic protein, RNA and trypsin concentrations; this was probably due to the fibrosis in this animal. No evidence of pancreatic hypertrophy or hyperplasia, as measured by RNA/DNA and protein/DNA ratios, respectively, was seen in any diet group.