Non-pharmacological treatment options for refractory epilepsy: An overview of human treatment modalities and their potential utility in dogs     

Valentine Martlé  Luc Van Ham  Robrecht Raedt  Kristl Vonck  Paul Boon  Sofie Bhatti 《Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997)》2014,199(3):332-339

Refractory epilepsy is a common disorder both in humans and dogs and treatment protocols are difficult to optimise. In humans, different non-pharmacological treatment modalities currently available include surgery, the ketogenic diet and neurostimulation. Surgery leads to freedom from seizures in 50–75% of patients, but requires strict patient selection. The ketogenic diet is indicated in severe childhood epilepsies, but efficacy is limited and long-term compliance can be problematic. In the past decade, various types of neurostimulation have emerged as promising treatment modalities for humans with refractory epilepsy. Currently, none of these treatment options are used in routine daily clinical practice to treat dogs with the condition. Since many dogs with poorly controlled seizures do not survive, the search for alternative treatment options for canine refractory epilepsy should be prioritised. This review provides an overview of non-pharmacological treatment options for human refractory epilepsy. The current knowledge and limitations of these treatments in canine refractory epilepsy is also discussed.  相似文献   

Functional and compositional responses in soil microbial communities along two metal pollution gradients: does the level of historical pollution affect resistance against secondary stress?     

Hamed Azarbad  Maria Niklińska  Karolina Nikiel  Nico M. van Straalen  Wilfred F. M. Röling 《Biology and Fertility of Soils》2015,51(7):879-890

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Preliminary investigation into the usefulness of the indirect haemagglutination     

B.A. Bokhout  J.H. Boon  J. Hendriks 《The Veterinary quarterly》2013,33(4):195-203

Summary

To give an impression of the usefulness of indirect haemagglutination (IHA) in the diagnosis of lungworm infections in cattle under practical conditions, five calves vaccinated against Dictyocaulus viviparus and five unvaccinated calves were periodically subjected to clinical, parasitological, and serological examinations over a period of seven months.

All calves grazed on a lungworm‐infected plot. 82% of the observations in unvaccinated calves, which were positive with respect to one or more of the used parameters, concerned IHA‐positive animals which, however, showed negative results with the parasitic parameters. The titre variation of the serological examination was a further indication of the fact that the IHA detected antibodies against lungworm antigens. No indications of false positive reactions were obtained.

An investigation carried out on 46 farms on the correlation between serological and clinical findings on lungworm infections revealed a positive correlation in 80% of the groups between results obtained with both methods.

The authors consider that IHA offers good prospects for the diagnosis of lung‐worm infections.  相似文献   

The incidence of Dictyocaulus viviparous infections in cattle in the Netherlands     

J.H. Boon  A. Kloosterman  T. van der Lende 《The Veterinary quarterly》2013,33(1):13-17

Summary

Examination of nearly 2000 sera indicated that approximately 90 per cent of cattle had acquired Dictyocaulus viviparus infections during the previous grazing season. No differences were found between provinces. Large differences were seen between herds. Antibody titres of milk cows on zerograzing farms were significantly lower than on comparable farms where animals were pastured. The need for further epidemiological work is stressed. In such work serology can be helpful.  相似文献   

Adhesion, proliferation, and gene expression profile of human umbilical vein endothelial cells cultured on bilayered polyelectrolyte coatings composed of glycosaminoglycans     

Heng BC  Bezerra PP  Meng QR  Chin DW  Koh LB  Li H  Zhang H  Preiser PR  Boey FY  Venkatraman SS 《Biointerphases》2010,5(3):FA53-FA62

This study characterized human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) adhesion, proliferation, and gene expression on bilayered polyelectrolyte coatings composed of an outermost layer of glycosaminoglycans (hyaluronan, heparin, or chondroitin sulfate), with an underlying layer of poly-L-lysine or chitosan. The proportion of cells that adhered to the various polyelectrolyte coatings after 1 and 2 h incubations was quantified by the WST-8 assay. Interchanging poly-L-lysine with chitosan resulted in significant differences in cellular adhesion to the outermost glycosaminoglycan layer after 1 h, but these differences became insignificant after 2 h. The proliferation of HUVEC on the various bilayered polyelectrolyte coatings over 10 days was characterized using the WST-8 assay. Regardless of whether the underlying layer was poly-L-lysine or chitosan, HUVEC proliferation on the hyaluronan outermost layer was significantly less than on heparin or chondroitin sulfate. Additionally, it was observed that there was more proliferation with poly-L-lysine as the underlying layer, compared to chitosan. Subsequently, real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the expression of seven genes related to adhesion, migration, and endothelial function (VWF, VEGFR, VEGFA, endoglin, integrin-α5, ICAM1, and ICAM2) by HUVEC cultured on the various bilayered polyelectrolyte coatings for 3 days. With poly-L-lysine as the underlying layer, biologically significant differences (greater than twofold) in the expression of VWF, VEGFR, VEGFA, endoglin, and ICAM1 were observed among the three glycosaminoglycans. With chitosan as the underlying layer, all three glycosaminoglycans displayed biologically significant differences in the expression of VWF and VEGFR compared to the chitosan control. CT-HA displayed the highest level of expression of VWF, whereas expression levels of VEGFR were almost similar among the three glycosaminoglycans.  相似文献   

Effects of a dietary organic acids blend and oxytetracycline on the growth,nutrient utilization and total cultivable gut microbiota of the red hybrid tilapia,Oreochromis sp., and resistance to Streptococcus agalactiae          下载免费PDF全文

Chik‐Boon Koh  Nicholas Romano  Abdullah Siti Zahrah  Wing‐Keong Ng 《Aquaculture Research》2016,47(2):357-369

A 20‐week feeding trial was conducted to measure growth, nutrient utilization and faecal/gut bacterial counts in triplicate groups of red hybrid tilapia, Oreochromis sp., when fed diets supplemented with 0.5% organic acids blend (OAB), 1.0% OAB, 0.5% oxytetracycline (OTC) or a control diet (no additives). At the end of the feeding trial, tilapia were challenged with Streptococcus agalactiae for 22 days. Fish fed the OTC diet had significantly higher (P < 0.05) growth than the control treatment, while growth between fish fed the OTC or OAB diets was not significantly different (P > 0.05). Phosphorus, dry matter and ash digestibility were significantly higher in the 1.0% OAB diet than the control diet. Fish fed the OAB diets had significantly lower colony‐forming units of adherent gut bacteria compared to the control or OTC treatments while those fed the 1.0% OAB diet had the lowest total faecal bacterial counts. Tilapia fed the 0.5% OTC or OAB diet had significantly higher resistance to S. agalactiae than those fed the control diet. This study indicates that dietary organic acids can potentially replace OTC as a growth promoter and antimicrobial in tilapia feeds.  相似文献   

Impacts of earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomus intraradices) on plant performance are not interrelated     

Nico Eisenhauer  Stephan König  Alexander C.W. Sabais  Francois Buscot 《Soil biology & biochemistry》2009,41(3):561-567

Earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) might interactively impact plant productivity; however, previous studies reported inconsistent results. We set up a three-factorial greenhouse experiment to study the effects of earthworms (Aporrectodea caliginosa Savigny and Lumbricus terrestris L.) and AMF (Glomus intraradices N.C. Schenck & G.S. Sm.) on the performance (productivity and shoot nutrient content) of plant species (Lolium perenne L., Trifolium pratense L. and Plantago lanceolata L.) belonging to the three functional groups grasses, legumes and herbs, respectively. Further, we investigated earthworm performance and plant root mycorrhization as affected by the treatments. Our results accentuate the importance of root derived resources for earthworm performance since earthworm weight (A. caliginosa and L. terrestris) and survival (L. terrestris) were significantly lower in microcosms containing P. lanceolata than in those containing T. pratense. However, earthworm performance was not affected by AMF, and plant root mycorrhization was not modified by earthworms. Although AMF effectively competed with T. pratense for soil N (as indicated by δ¹⁵N analysis), AMF enhanced the productivity of T. pratense considerably by improving P availability. Remarkably, we found no evidence for interactive effects of earthworms and AMF on the performance of the plant species studied. This suggests that interactions between earthworms and AMF likely are of minor importance.  相似文献   

Earthworms enhance plant regrowth in a grassland plant diversity gradient     

Nico Eisenhauer  Alexandru Milcu  Alexander C.W. Sabais  Stefan Scheu 《European Journal of Soil Biology》2009,45(5-6):455-458

Knowledge of the role of decomposers in the plant diversity–productivity relationship is scarce. In the framework of the Jena Experiment, we observed regrowth of grassland plant communities varying in plant species and functional group richness three weeks after mowing. We investigated earthworm subplots and subplots with reduced earthworm density in order to explore if earthworms enhance plant regrowth and if earthworm effects depend on plant diversity. Earthworms significantly enhanced each of the plant regrowth parameters (plant coverage and maximum and average height of the vegetation) suggesting that particularly fast growing species, such as grasses, benefit from earthworm activity. However, the average height of the vegetation was not affected in 16-species mixtures suggesting compensation of the impact of earthworms on plant regrowth in complex plant communities.  相似文献   

The incidence of Dictyocaulus viviparus infections in cattle in The Netherlands. I. The Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay as a diagnostic tool     

J H Boon  A Kloosterman  R van den Brink 《The Veterinary quarterly》1982,4(4):155-160

The Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) provides a very efficient technique for detecting antibodies against Dictyocaulus vivparus in calves. Although low level cross reactions were found in animals with gastrointestinal nematodes, the specificity and sensitivity of the technique are sufficient for herd diagnosis of lungworm infections and for survey work. This conclusion is reached on the basis of artificially and naturally infected calves. ELISA titres correlate well with Indirect Haemagglutination titres, parasitological findings, and clinical observations.  相似文献   

Novel approaches to integrated pest and disease control in glasshouse vegetables in the Netherlands     

Nico A. M. Van Steekelenburg 《Pest management science》1992,36(4):359-362

As a result of government policy and consumers' attitudes to environmentally compatible growing systems, research is focused on reduction of pesticide input into the environment. This aim is approached in different ways. With so-called “closed growing systems”, soil fumigants are no longer needed, resulting in an estimated 60% reduction in the total use of pesticides. Further, far smaller quantities of (systemic) pesticides need to be added to plants, via the nutrient solution, than with soil-grown crops. Water disinfestation is essential to minimize the spread of diseases and heat treatment and ozonization are already used under commercial conditions. Filtration appears to be neither reliable nor practical. Other disinfestation methods are under investigation. Ventilators may be provided with insect-proof screens to minimize infection pressure, especially on young plant material. Air filters in combination with mechanical ventilation may be an option for the future to raise healthy plants. A further reduction in the use of pesticides can be achieved by developing biological and integrated control of insects and fungi. Simultaneous application of several biocontrol methods in the fruit vegetable area has increased the complexity of IPM. Open rearing systems of parasitoids on alternative hosts to control cotton aphids and leaf miners are promising. IPM is highly dependent on the availability of selective chemicals. Biological control of root-infecting fungi in substrate crops shows promise. Integrated control of powdery mildew in cucumbers using a combination of nutritional and climatic management and varieties showing partial resistance will be studied. Improvement of application techniques for pesticides is being studied by plant pathologists in cooperation with technical experts. The aim is to reduce pesticide application rates, to minimize losses to the environment and to avoid health risks for the worker. By developing decision-support systems for crop protection, optimal use of beneficial insects is achieved and unnecessary applications of chemicals are avoided. A programme to develop such a system for the sweet pepper crop is under way.  相似文献