A water-based 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) partitioning method using n-hexane for the evaluation of green plant tissue viability has been developed. Conventionally, the reduction of TTC to insoluble red-coloured triphenylformazan (TPF) has been used to detect seed, bud, leaf and cultured cell viability. However, the 95% ethanol used to extract TPF also extracts various pigments, such as chlorophyll, from plant tissues which interfere with the absorption of TPF at 485 nm. This new water-based method improves upon the current method by eliminating the interfering pigments in the hexane layer, and by minimising the non-enzymatic oxidation of the sample. When used to evaluate the tissue viability of chillstressed waxapple (Syzygium samarangense) plants, the refined method had a greater sensitivity than the electrolyte leakage method and thus provided a more precise assessment for the physiological state of various plant tissues.

Plant Physiological Phenomena↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Rotavirus gastroenteritis in children: a clinical study of 125 patients in Hsin-Tien area.

During a 2-year period from January 1988 to December 1989, 125 patients (68 boys, 57 girls), aged 30 days to 9 years, were diagnosed as rotavirus gastroenteritis at this hospital. Diagnosis was made by identification of the rotavirus antigen in stool samples by latex agglutination assay. Ninety-nine (79.2%) of them were under 2 years of age. The seasonal peak in incidence was from January to March. The most common clinical characteristics were watery diarrhea (100%), followed by vomiting (68.8%), fever (68.0%), cough (42.4%), rhinorrhea (17.6%), convulsions (6.4%) and moderate to severe dehydration (1.6%). Fecal occult blood was positive in 4 patients and fecal leukocytes were positive in one patient. Stool cultures revealed concomitant infections with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in 4 patients. Of the 106 patients who underwent serum electrolyte examinations, serum sodium concentrations ranged from 135-145 meq/L in 81.9% (86/106) and serum potassium concentrations ranged from 3.5-5.0 meq/L in 86.8% (92/106). Leukocyte counts greater than 15,000/mm3 were found in 10.8% (13/120) of the patients. All 125 patients recovered from the diarrheal illness on follow-up. Our results showed a different seasonal distribution of this disease from that of a previous observation between 1983-1984 in Taipei City and provides original clinical information on rotavirus gastroenteritis in children living in an area of Taipei County. Using the simple and rapid latex agglutination assay, we can make early diagnosis of rotavirus gastroenteritis. Thus, early treatment and early isolation of patients to prevent nosocomial infection among hospitalized patients is possible.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Miller-Dieker syndrome with microdeletion of chromosome 17p13.3: report of one case.

Miller-Dieker syndrome (MDS) consists of lissencephaly, characteristic craniofacial appearance and sometimes other birth defects. Since 1983, it has been shown that most cases of MDS are caused by deletion of chromosome 17p13.3. Herein, we present a case of MDS in which the patient had characteristic craniofacial appearance in addition to lissencephaly. Although routine chromosome study showed a normal karyotype, deletion of chromosome 17p13.3 was suggested by high resolution GTG-banding and confirmed by FISH. About 36% of the cases reported by Dobyns had submicroscopic deletions of chromosome 17p13.3 in spite of normal karyotypes in routine chromosome studies. The high frequency of submicroscopic deletion in Dobyn's cases and our present case strongly suggests that chromosomal studies, including high-resolution banding and molecular genetic approaches such as FISH, are mandatory whenever MDS is suspected in cases of lissencephaly with normal karyotypes in routine chromosomal work-up.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗