Abstract: Objectives: To evaluate serum relaxin and renal vascular resistance in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with different grades of chronic kidney disease and to correlate serum relaxin to various clinical and Doppler renal hemodynamic parameters. Materials and methods: Sixty patients with chronic kidney disease were divided into two groups: group 1 (30 patients with creatinine clearance of less than 30 ml/minute), and group 2 (30 patients with creatinine clearance of more than 30 ml/minute). Twelve patients (40%) had diabetes mellitus type 2 in group 1 and 18 (60%) in group 2. In addition, group 3 (20 healthy controls), compatible for age and gender, was included. Resistive index and pulsatility index were measured by Doppler ultrasonography of renal arteries. Serum relaxin was measured with ELISA method, and correlated with clinical and Doppler parameters. Results: Serum relaxin levels of groups 1 and 2 were significantly lower than group 3 and that of group 1 were significantly lower than group 2. Resistive index and pulsatility index of groups 1 and 2 were significantly higher than group 3, but there was no significant difference between group 1 and 2. There was an inverse correlation between serum relaxin levels, and serum creatinine in groups 1 and 2. In contrast, there was a positive correlation between serum relaxin and creatinine clearance in groups 1 and 2. There was an inverse correlation between serum relaxin levels, and both resistive index and pulsatility index, in group 2 but not in group 1. Finally, serum relaxin was significantly lower in diabetic compared to non-diabetic patients. Conclusions: We found that serum relaxin levels are significantly lower in patients with advanced stages of chronic kidney disease, as well as, in diabetic compared to non-diabetic patients. Also, serum relaxin is negatively correlated with patients’ age, resistive index and pulsatility index in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Abstract: In the recent years, sonographic images of fetal nose have gained popularity in detecting trisomy 21 and other aneuploidies. Reference values for nasal bone length have been reported in different countries and ethnic populations. However, there was no reference range for the fetal nasal bone length (NBL) in the Filipino population. This prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted to establish reference values for the nasal bone length (NBL) at 11 – 15 weeks of gestation in the Filipino population. Ultrasonographic visualization of 74 fetuses at 11th to 15th week gestation was carried out during the months of August 2010 to January 2011. Fetal nasal bone was measured through sagittal section of the fetal profile. Fetal nasal bone length measurement was successfully performed in all 74 cases. The mean nasal bone lengths were 1.97 mm, 2.37 mm, 2.90 mm, 3.49 mm, and 4.05 mm between 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th gestational weeks respectively. Nasal bone length increased linearly with advancing gestational age (GA) and crown rump length (CRL). Despite of the limitations posed by this investigation, reference values for the nasal bone length (NBL) at 11 – 15 weeks of gestation in the Filipino population was identified.

Abstract: Background: Cancers and other non-communicable diseases were thought to be unimportant public health problems in developing countries because of the overwhelmingly high prevalence of communicable diseases. However, with improved health care facilities and extensive national immunization programmes, coupled with generally improving socio-economic status, malignant diseases are beginning to account for a significant percentage of childhood morbidity and mortality. The study aims to determine the morphological pattern, burden and demographic characteristics of paediatric solid malignancies seen at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital between January 1979 and December 2006. Methodology: The demographic characteristics of all cases of malignant solid neoplasms seen in children between the ages of 0 and 15 years were retrieved from the archives and recorded. The histopathological, cytological and the post-mortem slides of the recorded cases were retrieved and reviewed. Special staining techniques were employed where necessary. Results: Three hundred and twenty four cases of childhood solid malignant neoplasms were diagnosed over the study period. The prevalence of childhood malignant solid tumours in Ilorin is 311 per million children. The commonest tumour in this study is lymphoma representing 55.56% of total paediatric malignant solid neoplasms seen. Burkitt’s lymphoma constituted the largest single entity (80% of all lymphomas). This was followed by nephroblastoma, retinoblastoma and bone tumours which accounted for 8.33%, 7.72% and 4.63% respectively. Intracranial tumours were relatively rare. Conclusion: The pattern of paediatric malignant solid neoplasms seen in Ilorin is similar to what obtains in other parts of Nigeria and African countries. Burkitt’s Lymphoma is the commonest childhood malignancy in this study. Nephroblastoma is the second commonest childhood malignant solid neoplasm in Ilorin as against what was observed in other centres such as Ibadan, Ife and Jos where retinoblastoma is the second commonest after lymphoma.

Abstract: Objective: To explore a fast and sensitive method for screening T cell receptor (TCR) biases through comparison of silver staining for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining for agarose gel electrophoresis. Methods: The lymphocytes were isolated from peripheral blood which collected from ten patients with T1DM; the total RNA was extracted followed by transformed to cDNA, and then electrophoresis was carried out on polyacrylamide and agarose gel simultaneously, finally stained with silver and ethidium bromide dying respectively. Results: The pictures of TCR Vβ biases detected with silver staining for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were very similar to that with ethidium brominde staining for agarose gel electrophoresis, Vβ7, Vβ11 and Vβ17 were the mainly biased genes with higher frequencies, 10 and Vβ13.2 were the common genes which did not biased in all the ten patients. In some Vβ genes, the number of the bands detected with the former technique was more than that with the latter methods. So did the clarity of some bands. Conclusions: Silver staining for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is a fast, sensitive and safe method for screening the biases of TCR Vβ genes.