Cognitive consequences of early phase of literacy.

The effect of the degree of illiteracy (complete or incomplete) on phonological skills, verbal and visual memory and visuospatial skills is examined in 97 normal Brazilian adults who considered themselves illiterate, and 41 Brazilian school children aged 7 to 8 years, either nonreaders or beginning readers. Similar literacy effects were observed in children and in adults. Tasks involving phonological awareness and visual recognition memory of nonsense figures distinguish the best nonreaders and beginning readers. Children performed better than adults at oral repetition of short items and figure recall, and adults better than children at semantic verbal fluency, digit span, and word list recall. A principal component analysis of the correlations between tasks showed that phonological awareness/reading, phonological memory/oral repetition, and semantic verbal memory/fluency tasks, generated different components. The respective role of culturally based preschool activities and literacy on the cognitive functions that are explored in this study is discussed.     

Application to immunoglobulin M capture hemadherence assays of hemagglutination of monkey erythrocytes by native and recombinant human parvovirus B19 antigens.

Human parvovirus B19 recently was shown to agglutinate baboon and human erythrocytes. We have now demonstrated that both recombinant and native B19 antigens agglutinate rhesus, cynomolgus, and Saimiri monkey erythrocytes. Using cynomolgus erythrocytes and the recombinant antigen, we developed an immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody capture hemadherence test (MACHAT) for the detection of specific B19 IgM antibodies in human sera. The results obtained with MACHAT were compared with those obtained with an IgM capture enzyme immunoassay (MACEIA) employing the native antigen routinely used in our laboratory. For 229 patient serum samples, we found 96% agreement between the results of the two assays. There was some evidence that MACHAT was slightly more sensitive than MACEIA. Our results add to the range of erythrocytes that can be agglutinated by B19 virus and show that native as well as recombinant antigens may be used in MACHAT.     

Improved immunodiagnosis of human cysticercosis with scolex protein antigens

Crude antigenic extract (CAE) and a scolex protein antigen (SPA) of Taenia solium cysticerci were used in indirect haemagglutination (IH) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect serum antibodies in cysticercosis patients. Complement fixation (CF) was used for comparison with antigens obtained as an alcoholic extract of CAE (ACAE) and SPA (ASPA). For each test, a dilution was chosen which showed no cross-reactivity with sera from patients with other parasitic diseases such as taeniasis, schistosomiasis, ancylostomiasis, ascaridiasis, strongyloidiasis, Chagas' disease and syphilis. For the CF, 14 was the discriminative dilution determined; for IH, 116 and for ELISA, 1256. The CF could detect serum antibodies to cysticerci in 45% of patients when ACAE antigen was used and 73% using ASPA. In the IH, serum antibody was detected in 73% of patients when CAE was used and 86% using SPA. In ELISA 63% of patients were positive when CAE was used and 91% using SPA. The use of SPA improved the serological distinction between infected and uninfected patients in all tests and the ELISA showed a significantly higher capacity to detect infected patients.     

Clusterin, a marker for anaplastic large cell lymphoma immunohistochemical profile in hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic malignant neoplasms

We evaluated the immunohistochemical staining profile of clusterin in paraffin sections of 143 neoplasms (non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 83, including 41 anaplastic large cell lymphomas [ALCLs]; Hodgkin lymphoma, 17; primary and metastatic carcinoma, 30; and other neoplasms, 13). In 40 of 41 ALCLs (34 systemic, 7 cutaneous), neoplastic cells revealed clusterin reactivity characterized by a Golgi staining pattern. The proportion of reactive cells varied with more than 25% positive cells in the majority of cases. In 7 non-Hodgkin lymphomas of other types, fine cytoplasmic (3 cases) or strong membranous reactivity (4 cases) was observed for clusterin. In Hodgkin lymphoma, rare Reed-Sternberg cells exhibited focal cytoplasmic or membranous clusterin positivity. In the nonhematopoietic neoplasms, a Golgi staining pattern was apparent in only 2 cases, 1 lobular carcinoma of the breast and 1 poorly differentiated colonic carcinoma; however, cytoplasmic reactivity was noted in 12 of 30 carcinomas and 1 of 5 neuroendocrine neoplasms. A Golgi pattern of reactivity for clusterin seems highly characteristic of ALCL among hematopoietic neoplasms, but also might be observed in rare nonhematopoietic tumors, necessitating the use of a broad immunohistochemical panel for evaluation of poorly differentiated neoplasms of indeterminate derivation.     

Gender-related cytokine patterns in sera of schistosomiasis patients with Symmers' fibrosis

Cytokine levels were compared between schistosomiasis patients affected by intense fibrosis defined by ultrasound examination and graded from F-0 to F-3. The concentrations of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, gamma interferon, and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of serum samples. Levels of IL-4, IL-5, and TNF-alpha in the sera of F-3 patients were significantly higher than those found in F-0 individuals, while levels of IL-13 were lower. Levels of IL-4, IL-5, and TNF-alpha in serum were significantly higher in F-3 males than in F-0 males or F-3 females. Conversely, levels of IL-13 were significantly lower in F-3 females than in F-0 females and males.