Kew Mc

Bio: Kew Mc is an academic researcher from University of the Witwatersrand. The author has contributed to research in topics: Hepatitis B & Hepatitis. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 21 publications receiving 652 citations.

Hepatitis-B antigen and cirrhosis in Bantu patients with primary liver cancer.

Abstract: Hepatitis-B antigen (HBAg) was found in the serum of 30 of 75 (40%) Bantu patients with primary liver cancer (PLC), but in only 7% of 18,377 apparently healthy rural Bantu, confirming an association between this tumor and persistence of the hepatitis-B virus. No relationship could be demonstrated between hepatitis-B antigenemia and alpha-fetoprotein, which was present in 77% of the patients. HBAg was not more common in the younger patients. In 60% of the patients, PLC coexisted with „posthepatitic” or postnecrotic cirrhosis. HBAg was found in 45.6% of the patients with cirrhosis, but also in 31% of those without, an insignificant difference. Our findings may be interpreted as meaning that persistence of the hepatitis-B virus is the cause or result of PLC, or that some immunologic defect is responsible for both. If the former, the virus must be directly oncogenic, in addition to having the potential to induce neoplasia indirectly via chronic parenchymal liver disease.

The diagnostic and prognostic significance of the serum enzyme changes in heatstroke

Abstract: Serum transaminase (SGOT, SGPT), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels were measured serially in 84 Bantu gold-miners with a provisional diagnosis of heatstroke. In 75 patients proved to have heatstroke, SGOT levels were invariably, and SGPT, LDH and CPK values almost invariably, elevated within 24 hours of admission. The levels continued to rise for approximately 48 hours and remained elevated for average periods of 12 to 14 days. In the patients who proved to have acute infections, SGOT, SGPT and LDH values were normal. The serum enzyme changes were therefore useful in confirming or excluding the diagnosis of heatstroke. The degree of elevation of the enzyme levels was also a reliable index of the severity of tissue damage in heatstroke and hence the patient's likely outcome. In 15 patients in whom the SGOT level exceeded 1,000 units in the first 24 hours, renal, hepatic and cerebral damage tended to be severe, and death or permanent sequelae were common. In 20 patients with SGOT values of less than 1,000 units, the tissue injury was usually mild or moderate and completely reversible, and there was only 1 death.

AASLD PRACTICE GUIDELINE Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: An Update

Abstract: Since the publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) practice guidelines on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in 2005, new information has emerged that requires that the guidelines be updated. The full version of the new guidelines is available on the AASLD Web site at http://www.aasld.org/practiceguidelines/ Documents/Bookmarked%20Practice%20Guidelines/ HCCUpdate2010.pdf. Here, we briefly describe only new or changed recommendations.

Exertional heat illness during training and competition

Abstract: SUMMARY Exertional heat illness can affect athletes during high-intensity or longduration exercise and result in withdrawal from activity or collapse during or soon after activity. These maladies include exercise associated muscle cramping, heat exhaustion, or exertional heatstroke. While certain individuals are more prone to collapse from exhaustion in the heat (i.e., not acclimatized, using certain medications, dehydrated, or recently ill), exertional heatstroke (EHS) can affect seemingly healthy athletes even when the environment is relatively cool. EHS is defined as a rectal temperature greater than 40-C accompanied by symptoms or signs of organ system failure, most frequently central nervous system dysfunction. Early recognition and rapid cooling can reduce both the morbidity and mortality associated with EHS. The clinical changes associated with EHS can be subtle and easy to miss if coaches, medical personnel, and athletes do not maintain a high level of awareness and monitor at-risk athletes closely. Fatigue and exhaustion during exercise occur more rapidly as heat stress increases and are the most common causes of withdrawal from activity in hot conditions. When athletes collapse from exhaustion in hot conditions, the term heat exhaustion is often applied. In some cases, rectal temperature is the only discernable difference between severe heat exhaustion and EHS in on-site evaluations. Heat exhaustion will generally resolve with symptomatic care and oral fluid support. Exercise associated muscle cramping can occur with exhaustive work in any temperature range, but appears to be more prevalent in hot and humid conditions. Muscle cramping usually responds to rest and replacement of fluid and salt (sodium). Prevention strategies are essential to reducing the incidence of EHS, heat exhaustion, and exercise associated muscle cramping.

National Athletic Trainers' Association Position Statement: Exertional Heat Illnesses

Abstract: Objective: To present best-practice recommendations for the prevention, recognition, and treatment of exertional heat illnesses (EHIs) and to describe the relevant physiology of thermoregulation. ...