Urine metabolites correlate with airway dysfunction in an asthma model. Urine NMR analysis is a promising, noninvasive technique for monitoring asthma in humans.
Establishing the severity of hypoxic insult during the delivery of a neonate is key step in the determining the type of therapy administered. While successful therapy is present, current methods for assessing hypoxic injuries in the neonate are limited. Urine Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabolomics allows for the rapid non-invasive assessment of a multitude breakdown products of physiological processes. In a newborn piglet model of hypoxia, we used NMR spectroscopy to determine the levels of metabolites in urine samples, which were correlated with physiological measurements. Using PLS-DA analysis, we identified 13 urinary metabolites that differentiated hypoxic versus nonhypoxic animals (1-methylnicotinamide, 2-oxoglutarate, alanine, asparagine, betaine, citrate, creatine, fumarate, hippurate, lactate, N-acetylglycine, N-carbamoyl-β-alanine, and valine). Using this metabolomic profile, we then were able to blindly identify hypoxic animals correctly 84% of the time compared to nonhypoxic controls. This was better than using physiologic measures alone. Metabolomic profiling of urine has potential for identifying neonates that have undergone episodes of hypoxia.
Entamoeba histolytica infections of the gastrointestinal tract are common in the developing world but rare in North America. The authors present two cases: one involving an individual who had not travelled to an endemic area and another involving an individual who was born in Bulgaria. Both presented with severe abdominal pain and diarrhea. Endoscopic assessment revealed scattered colonic ulcerations and one patient was found to have a liver abscess on imaging. Stool ova and parasite studies were negative in both cases and both were diagnosed on review of colonic biopsies. On review of all Entamoeba cases in the Calgary Health Zone (Alberta), ova and parasite analysis found an average of 63.7 Entamoeba cases per year and a pathology database review revealed a total of seven cases of invasive E histolytica (2001 to 2011). Both patients responded well to antibiotic therapy. E histolytica should be considered in new-onset colitis, especially in individuals from endemic areas.
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