Association of DLG5 R30Q variant with inflammatory bowel disease

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal system known as the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Recently, Stoll and colleagues reported a novel finding of genetic variation in the DLG5 gene that is associated with IBD (CD and UC combined). We present here a study of the genetic variation described in that report in two well-powered, independent case-control cohorts and one family-based collection, and confirm the proposed association between IBD and the R30Q variant of DLG5 in two of the three studies. We are, however, unable to replicate the other proposed association to the common haplotype described in Stoll et al and suggest that this other finding could conceivably have been partially a statistical fluctuation and partially a result of LD with the replicated R30Q association. This study provides support for the hypothesis that DLG5 constitutes a true IBD risk factor of modest effect.     

Hydatidiform mole: parental chromosome aberrations in partial and complete moles.

The relationship between parental constitutional chromosome abnormalities and the development of hydatidiform mole was evaluated in series from four institutions. Karyotype analysis was performed on blood samples from 237 patients with a pathological diagnosis of complete mole and 217 of their spouses. One patient was found to have a constitutional balanced translocation, t(11;18), while one spouse was found to have a balanced translocation, t(4;20). Among 125 patients with partial mole and 106 of their spouses, one male was found to be a translocation carrier, t(13;14). No significant increase in the frequency of translocations in the parents of complete moles was found in any of the series considered separately or together. Data from the combined series show no evidence of constitutional parental chromosome aberrations as an aetiological factor in the development of molar pregnancies.     

PC-based system for collection and analysis of physiological data

A personal computer based system for data acquisition and analysis appropriate to physiological experiments is described in detail. The system is independent of the details of the analog signal generation. The software, written in C, is modular and easily portable to other PC systems. The system is capable of: (a) sampling many analog signals at an appropriate rate (100 Hz), (b) storing large quantities of digitized data, (c) analysing digitized waveforms to obtain signal parameters, and (d) storing signal parameters in a format suitable for statistical analysis. Computer processed cardiopulmonary data are compared with data derived from standard ICU equipment.     

Medication adherence in patients with HIV infection: a comparison of two measurement methods

Two measurements of adherence, patient self-report and electronic measurement by the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS), were compared in a 3-month adherence study of 44 HIV-infected patients who had been placed on regimens that included protease inhibitors (PIs). The dose percentage and degree of clinically significant dosing time fluctuation were calculated monthly. The mean dose percentage by self-report versus MEMS was 97.5% versus 90.3% during month 1 of adherence monitoring, 96.5 versus 90.1% during month 2, and 98.4% versus 92.8% during month 3. Thirty-two percent of patients taking PIs and 21% of patients taking nucleoside analogues demonstrated clinically significant dosing time fluctuation. Our data confirm that self-reports of adherence overestimate true adherence behavior, and patients' self-reports of dosing times may not accurately reflect their deviation from those times.     

The role of the graft in the induction of tolerance by antilymphocyte serum and cellular antigen

Intravenous donor antigen in the form of spleen cells can significantly potentiate the effects of ALS in prolonging the survival of skin allografts exchanged across both weak and strong histocompatibility barriers. This effect depends on the proper timing of antigen administration and can result in immunologic unresponsiveness of sufficient strength to permit acceptance of second set grafts. The skin allograft itself apparently plays a role in the establishment of this unresponsive state since ALS and antigen alone followed by delayed allografts at 21 days resulted in normal graft rejection times.