Berufsbedingte Hauterkrankungen—Paradigma der Sekundärprävention

The dermatologist's procedure was introduced in 1972 by employers' liability insurance funds in the industrial, agricultural and public sectors of Germany's statutory occupational accident insurance as a "procedure for early detection of occupational skin diseases". So far, it is still the most relevant tool for secondary prevention in occupational dermatology in Germany. According to the intention of this procedure, insured persons with a skin disease in which an occupational aetiology is suspected must be offered preventive measures and, if necessary, given appropriate treatment to avoid their losing their jobs. On the initiative of the Central Federation of Industrial Professional Associations (HVBG), a study group was set up in 1999 from among its membership in cooperation with the Working Committee of Occupational and Environmental Dermatology (ABD) and the Professional Organisation of German Dermatologists (BVDD) to improve on the efficiency of the "classic" dermatologist's procedure. The proposed "optimised" dermatologist's procedure is based on the assumption that early detection followed by competent and intensified skin protection and skin care will be successful in retarding or stopping the progression of occupational dermatoses, while later treatment is likely to be less effective. In October 2002, a pilot study started in Northwest Germany to establish by scientific evaluation whether the implementation of secondary protective measures is definitively better when the provisional "optimised" dermatologist's procedure is followed. The study results should allow detailed suggestions for an improved dermatologist's procedure before it is introduced nationwide.     

Pressure/flow relations in the interlamellar space of fish gills: theory and application in the rainbow trout

The nature of the water flow in the interlamellar spaces of fish gills is investigated using the basic fluid mechanical equations. The results show that the gill behaves like a low-pass filter, dampening the amplitude of the velocity oscillation when the frequency of the driving pressure differential exceeds some characteristic value and shifting the phase angle between the pressure and velocity pulses from 0 towards -pi/2. The cut-off frequency is determined by the parameter v/r2, where r is the half-width of the interlamellar space and v the kinematic viscosity. Using known gill dimensions the analysis shows that dampening of the velocity amplitude is not likely to occur at driving pressure frequencies below 100 Hz. Fourier analysis of the pressure differential recorded between buccal and opercular chambers of rainbow trout reveals that there is very little contribution from frequencies above 10 Hz, suggesting that interlamellar water flow is pulsatile and that the possibility for backflow exists.     

Deciphering the molecular effects of non-ablative Er:YAG laser treatment in an in vitro model of the non-keratinized mucous membrane

Lasers in Medical Science -     

Specialized DNA arrays for the differentiation of pancreatic tumors.

PURPOSE: Malignant tumors of the pancreas are frequently indistinguishable from inflammatory tumors arising in the context of a chronic pancreatitis with the use of conventional imaging techniques. Thus, cytologic analysis of cells obtained by abdominal ultrasound, computed tomography, or endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy is required for diagnosis. However, the reliability of cytologic analyses of pancreatic fine needle aspirates remains unsatisfactory, with a diagnostic accuracy of < or =80%. The purpose of the current study was therefore to develop a novel diagnostic approach based on expression profiling of biopsy material using a specialized diagnostic cDNA array. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Previous gene expression profiling studies were reevaluated to design a 558-feature diagnostic array. Minimal amounts of residual material from pancreatic cytology samples as well as surgically resected tumor and control tissue specimens were analyzed using the diagnostic array and a newly developed statistical classification system. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Our diagnostic approach resulted in 95% accurate differentiation between ductal adenocarcinomas and nonmalignant tumors of the pancreas. The diagnostic array, in conjunction with conventional diagnostic procedures, is thus suitable to significantly improve the reliability of pancreatic cancer diagnostics and can be expected to become a valuable new tool in the routine workup of suspect masses in the pancreas.     

Novel Electromagnetic Characterization Methods for New Materials and Structures in Aerospace Platforms

The tendency over the last decades in the aerospace industry is to substitute classic metallic materials with new composite materials such as carbon fiber composites (CFC), fiber glass, etc., as well as adding electronic devices to ensure the safety and proper platform operation. Due to this, to protect the aircraft against the Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3), it is mandatory to develop accurate electromagnetic (EM) characterization measurement systems to analyze the behavior of new materials and electronic components. In this article, several measurement methods are described to assess the EM behavior of the samples under test: microstrip transmission line for a surface current analysis, free space to obtain intrinsic features of the materials and shielding effectiveness (SE) approaches to figure out how well they isolate from EM fields. The results presented in this work show how the different facilities from the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) are suitable for such purposes, being capable of measuring a wide variety of materials, depending on the type of test to be carried out.     

Primary tumor dependent inhibition of tumor growth,angiogenesis, and perfusion of secondary breast cancer in bone

The systemic balance of angiogenic and anti‐angiogenic factors has been proposed to play a key‐role in primary tumor growth dependent growth suppression of secondary tumors. Despite the importance of the organ microenvironment to angiogenesis and microcirculation, the influence of a primary tumor on secondary bone tumors has not been investigated so far. Since breast cancer has a high propensity to spread to bone, we used an in vivo xenograft model to determine the impact of growing breast cancer cells (MCF‐7) in the mammary fat pad on the microvascular properties of subsequently inoculated secondary breast cancer tumors in bone. Mice were either treated with a resection of the primary tumor (n = 10) or no surgery (n = 9) and intravital microscopy was performed over 25 days in bone tumors. Tumor growth in bone was temporarily suppressed by the primary tumor on days 10 and 14. While microvascular permeability and vascular diameter decreased in both groups over time, the presence of the primary tumor was accompanied by a decreased tumor perfusion on days 8 and 10 through a reduction in vessels with diameters between 5 and 20 µm. The results imply a potential benefit of a therapeutic regime in which the resection of the primary tumor is combined with an anti‐angiogenic therapy in the perioperative or direct postoperative period. This might result in reduced progression of bone metastasis subsequent to excision of the primary tumor. © 2011 Orthopaedic Research Society Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29: 1251–1258, 2011