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Query: UMLS:C0424790 (rigors)
 822 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Struvite renal stones are caused by infection of the urine with bacteria that synthesize the enzyme urease. Ammonium is released by the breakdown of urea by urease, the urine becomes highly alkaline, and magnesium ammonium phosphate (struvite) and carbonate apatite crystallize. Incorporation of the infecting bacteria within the developing stone, results in a focus of infection that is resistant to conventional antimicrobial therapy, and which is manifested clinically by repeated urinary tract infection caused by persistent bacteriuria. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) currently is accepted as the election treatment for most renal calculi. This trial examines the bacteriologic aspects pre and post-ESWL. Eighty adult patients, 47 females and 33 males, without clinical signs of urinary tract infections (UTI) were submitted to urine cultures pre and post-ESWL. The first 50 patients underwent during and post-ESWL, 150 blood cultures, which all proved to be negative, confirming very low risk of generalized sepsis. No patient presented fever, chills or rigors pre or postprocedures. With respect to urine cultures 43 patients (52.5%) had a pre-ESWL UTI, in comparison to 49 (60%) who had a UTI post-ESWL. The distribution of organisms pre and post-ESWL was as follows: Proteus mirabilis (22/22), Escherichia coli (11/11), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4/5), Klebsiella pneumoniae (2/2), Enterobacter cloacae (0/1), Alcaligenes odorans (1/2) Enterococcus faecalis (1/3), Staphylococcus saprophyticus (1/2) and Candida albicans (1/1). In this study 6 patients presented bacteriuria post-ESWL probably due to bacteria from inside the calculi. According to these results, the risk of bacteremia seems to be very low. In 60% of staghorn renal stones we could demonstrate a bacterial infection.
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PMID:[Staghorn renal lithiasis treated with shock waves. Bacteriologic aspects]. 765 75

Do corals form their skeletons by precipitation from solution or by attachment of amorphous precursor particles as observed in other minerals and biominerals? The classical model assumes precipitation in contrast with observed "vital effects," that is, deviations from elemental and isotopic compositions at thermodynamic equilibrium. Here, we show direct spectromicroscopy evidence in Stylophora pistillata corals that two amorphous precursors exist, one hydrated and one anhydrous amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC); that these are formed in the tissue as 400-nm particles; and that they attach to the surface of coral skeletons, remain amorphous for hours, and finally, crystallize into aragonite (CaCO3). We show in both coral and synthetic aragonite spherulites that crystal growth by attachment of ACC particles is more than 100 times faster than ion-by-ion growth from solution. Fast growth provides a distinct physiological advantage to corals in the rigors of the reef, a crowded and fiercely competitive ecosystem. Corals are affected by warming-induced bleaching and postmortem dissolution, but the finding here that ACC particles are formed inside tissue may make coral skeleton formation less susceptible to ocean acidification than previously assumed. If this is how other corals form their skeletons, perhaps this is how a few corals survived past CO2 increases, such as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum that occurred 56 Mya.
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PMID:Amorphous calcium carbonate particles form coral skeletons. 2884 44