Search

Left ventricular noncompaction cardiomyopathy (LVNC) is a structural heart defect that has been associated with generation of arrhythmias in the population and is a cause of sudden cardiac death with severe systolic dysfunction and fatal arrhythmias. LVNC has gained increasing acknowledgment with increased prevalence. We conducted a systematic review of reported electrocardiogram (ECG) results for pediatric LVNC patients. EMBASE database query was performed, yielding 4531 articles related to LVNC between 1990 and December 2023. Patient age ranged from prenatal to 18 years of age. Qualitative analyses were performed to characterize individual arrhythmias, and summative interpretation of ECG evaluations was gathered for the entire cohort. Systematic review of 57 LVNC cases and ECG presentation revealed many waveform consistencies, including abnormal left ventricular, atrioventricular node, and interventricular septal patterns, and specifically a high incidence of Mobitz type II and Wolff–Parkinson–White waveforms. This review of ECG analysis reinforces the clinical and etiologic significance of pediatric LVNC. While LVNC in pediatric populations may not always present as acute clinical cases, further investigation into the electrophysiology of the disease supports the need for further evaluation and risk stratification for patients with suspected LVNC and/or ventricular arrhythmia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to improve cage systems for maintaining adult honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) workers under in vitro laboratory conditions. To achieve this goal, we experimentally evaluated the impact of different cages, developed by scientists of the international research network COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), on the physiology and survival of honey bees. We identified three cages that promoted good survival of honey bees. The bees from cages that exhibited greater survival had relatively lower titers of deformed wing virus, suggesting that deformed wing virus is a significant marker reflecting stress level and health status of the host. We also determined that a leak-and drip-proof feeder was an integral part of a cage system and a feeder modified from a 20-ml plastic syringe displayed the best result in providing steady food supply to bees. Finally, we also demonstrated that the addition of protein to the bees' diet could significantly increase the level of vitellogenin gene expression and improve bees' survival. This international collaborative study represents a critical step toward improvement of cage designs and feeding regimes for honey bee laboratory experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honey bee health is mainly affected by Varroa destructor, viruses, Nosema spp., pesticide residues and poor nutrition. Interactions between these proposed factors may be responsible for the colony losses reported worldwide in recent years. In the present study, the effects of a honey bee virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), on the foraging behaviors and homing ability of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) were investigated based on proboscis extension response (PER) assays and radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. The pollen forager honey bees originated from colonies that had no detectable level of honey bee viruses and were manually inoculated with IAPV to induce the viral infection. The results showed that IAPV-inoculated honey bees were more responsive to low sucrose solutions compared to that of non-infected foragers. After two days of infection, around 107 copies of IAPV were detected in the heads of these honey bees. The homing ability of IAPV-infected foragers was depressed significantly in comparison to the homing ability of uninfected foragers. The data provided evidence that IAPV infection in the heads may enable the virus to disorder foraging roles of honey bees and to interfere with brain functions that are responsible for learning, navigation, and orientation in the honey bees, thus, making honey bees have a lower response threshold to sucrose and lose their way back to the hive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]