The influence of suppression on the flicker ERG

Summary The evoked occipital responses on flicker stimulation of the attentively reading eye have a significantly higher amplitude than the same responses on flicker stimulation of the suppressed eye.An effect of attention in the flicker ERG is not sufficiently demonstrated. If anything could be said about the influence of attention on the ERG it is the reverse of that on the occipital responses, i.e. attention lowers the amplitude of the ERG.

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Zusammenfassung Die Amplituden der Reizantworten des occipitalen Cortex auf Flimmerlicht-reizung des lesenden Auges sind höher als die auf Flimmerlichtreizung des supprimierten Auges.Ein Einfluss der Aufmerksamkeit war im ERG nicht deutlich erkennbar. Man möchte eher sagen, dass ein Einfluss in gegenseitiger Richtung zu finden war. Das heisst: die Aufmerksamkeit verkleinert die Amplituden des ERG.

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Résumé Les réponses évoquées du cortex occipital à la stimulation lumineuse intermittente (S.L.I.) de l'oeil attentivement lisant sont d'amplitude plus haut que les mêmes réponses au S.L.I. de l'oeil supprimé.Dans l'ERG au S.L.I. un effet de l'attention n'était pas clairement démontrable. Il y avait quelquefois une indication d'une influence de l'attention sur l'ERG en sens opposé. C'est à dire l'attention diminuait l'amplitude des réponses électro-rétinographiques.

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Eye Clinic, Rotterdam Medical School.     

Implementation of the NICE guideline – Recommendations from the British Fertility Society for national criteria for NHS funding of assisted conception

It has been demonstrated that embryo transfer during IVF treatment can be performed competently and successfully by nurses (Barber et al., 1996). The present study has examined the success of nurses in training using the standardized protocol of this Unit. Initially, three nurses (two experienced (training completed) and one inexperienced (training ongoing)) each performed 80 transfers, which were standardized to three embryos replaced per transfer. The study aimed to establish whether a standardized procedure was undertaken by the nurses and to assess the influence of one inexperienced nurse performing the procedure. A further study (study 2) was performed to assess the influence of three inexperienced nurses against three experienced nurses undertaking the same procedures. In study 1, the pregnancy rates were 27.5%, 38.8% and 40.0% and there was no significant difference in the clinical pregnancy rates. In study 2, the pregnancy rates were 18.7%, 20.0% and 20.0% for the inexperienced nurses, and 26.3%, 30.0% and 32.5% for the experienced nurses. There was no significant difference in the clinical pregnancy rates within the inexperienced group or the experienced group. When the results of the three inexperienced nurses were grouped and were compared with those of the three experienced nurses, the pregnancy rates were 19.5% and 29.5%, respectively (P < 0.02). It has been shown that good clinical pregnancy rates can be achieved when nurses perform embryo transfer. There is no significant effect on clinical results when one nurse is in training; however, because of the expected learning curve, when three nurses train together a more significant effect is observed.     

Discontinuation of tube feeding in young children by hunger provocation - a randomized controlled trial

Tijdschrift voor Kindergeneeskunde -     

Perspectives of new reproductive and diagnostic techniques among biologists and physicians, social scientists and ethicists.

The introduction and acceptance of new techniques in the field of reproductive medicine and antenatal genetic diagnosis is a complicated process in which biomedical professionals, and also social scientists and ethicists, play an important role. In this study the attitudes, expectancies and opinions of a panel of biological and medical professionals working in the field of this new technology are compared with those of a panel of concerned social scientists, psychologists, ethicists and leading members of patient groups. Various aspects of the new techniques are investigated: the present and future feasibility, the potential importance, the ethical evaluation and the social acceptance. The social-ethical panel appears to be much more reluctant regarding the importance, ethical values and social acceptability of new techniques than the biomedical panel, in particular, for preimplantation genetic diagnosis and fetal cell sorting large differences exist.     

The CTLA-4 gene region of chromosome 2q33 is linked to, and associated with, type 1 diabetes. Belgian Diabetes Registry

Susceptibility to autoimmune insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes mellitus is determined by a combination of environmental and genetic factors, which include variation in MHC genes on chromosome 6p21 (IDDM1) and the insulin gene on chromosome 11p15 (IDDM2). However, linkage to IDDM1 and IDDM2 cannot explain the clustering of type 1 diabetes in families, and a role for other genes is inferred. In the present report we describe linkage and association of type 1 diabetes to the CTLA-4 gene (cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated-4) on chromosome 2q33 (designated IDDM12). CTLA-4 is a strong candidate gene for T cell- mediated autoimmune disease because it encodes a T cell receptor that mediates T cell apoptosis and is a vital negative regulator of T cell activation. In addition, we provide supporting evidence that CTLA-4 is associated with susceptibility to Graves' disease, another organ- specific autoimmune disease.