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Biomedical subjects

Ian Hunt

Publications and source records attributed to Ian Hunt.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

Combined lung resection and transdiaphragmatic adrenalectomy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and homolateral solitary adrenal metastasis.

Surgery may offer a long-term survival benefit to a small proportion of patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and solitary adrenal metastasis. Several approaches to lung resection with a separate open or laparoscopic adrenalectomy have been advocated. We describe a technique that allows a single incision, single operation through a transdiaphragmatic approach to the ipsilateral adrenal gland following a standard lung resection through a postero-lateral thoracotomy. By using this approach, along with the harmonic scalpel to aid adrenal dissection, both lobectomy and adrenalectomy can be carried out safely and effectively with minimal perioperative and postoperative morbidity.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms↗

Optimisation of insect cell growth in deep-well blocks: development of a high-throughput insect cell expression screen.

This report describes a method to culture insects cells in 24 deep-well blocks for the routine small-scale optimisation of baculovirus-mediated protein expression experiments. Miniaturisation of this process provides the necessary reduction in terms of resource allocation, reagents, and labour to allow extensive and rapid optimisation of expression conditions, with the concomitant reduction in lead-time before commencement of large-scale bioreactor experiments. This therefore greatly simplifies the optimisation process and allows the use of liquid handling robotics in much of the initial optimisation stages of the process, thereby greatly increasing the throughput of the laboratory. We present several examples of the use of deep-well block expression studies in the optimisation of therapeutically relevant protein targets. We also discuss how the enhanced throughput offered by this approach can be adapted to robotic handling systems and the implications this has on the capacity to conduct multi-parallel protein expression studies.

Animals↗

From gene to protein: a review of new and enabling technologies for multi-parallel protein expression.

In the post-genomic era, increasingly greater demands and expectations are being placed on protein production laboratories to produce more proteins and in faster timelines. This has been coupled with an exponential increase in the number of requests for the production of proteins which lack structural and functional information. No longer can groups use literature available in the public domain solely to drive their expression strategy, and moreover current expression and concomitant purification strategies clearly do not meet modern-day demands for protein production. This review will therefore attempt to provide a definitive review of current 'best in class' cloning, expression and purification systems, and the adaptations and developments that have been made by laboratories, both academic and industrial, to enhance protein production throughput.

Animals↗

Colchicine myoneuropathy in a renal transplant patient.

Colchicine is widely employed for the treatment of gout in renal transplant patients where NSAIDs are contra-indicated and allopurinol prophylaxis is often avoided due to concomitant azathioprine immunosuppression. We report here a case of colchicine-induced myoneuropathy in a renal transplant recipient. Our patient had myalgia, muscle weakness, elevated creatine kinase levels, myopathic changes on electromyography and peripheral neuropathy. Withdrawal of colchicine resulted in recovery within 4 weeks. Renal transplant recipients are likely to be at greater risk of colchicine-induced myoneuropathy due to the unique concurrence of risk factors predisposing to toxicity in such patients. These risk factors include the high incidence of gout in this population, widespread use of colchicine as first-line therapy, impaired renal function and concomitant cyclosporin treatment. The diagnosis should be considered in any renal transplant recipient receiving the drug who develops myopathy. Prompt withdrawal of colchicine therapy should result in rapid clinical and biochemical improvement.

Aged↗

Heparin-induced hyperkalemia after cardiac surgery.

Surgeons are increasingly faced with patients suffering from complicated pathology in multiple organ systems, to which multiple therapeutic agents with complex adverse effects are often prescribed. We face a daily challenge in maintaining an up-to-date knowledge of these complications. Heparin is widely used in surgical practice, yet our awareness of its adverse effects, other than bleeding and thrombocytopenia, remains poor. We will present an example of heparin-induced hyperkalemia following administration for cardiopulmonary bypass and intraaortic balloon pump prophylaxis. This is a rare but serious complication of heparin therapy, not usually reported in the context of a cardiac surgical patient. We will also discuss the renal physiology leading to hyperkalemia and the options available for its management.

Angina, Unstable↗

Prosthetic valve endocarditis caused by Bartonella quintana.

We describe the first case of Bartonella quintana endocarditis affecting a prosthetic valve in a person with no known risk factors for this infection. Bartonella should be considered as a cause of endocarditis in any clinical setting.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗