Highly Polymorphic Domains of the Human Serum Amyloid A (SAA) Gene GSAA1

The DNA of the human serum amyloid A (SAA) gene GSAA1 contains several repetitive regions within its introns. We have studied length variations at one such region in the 2nd intron by selective amplification using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and defined oligonucleotide primers. The lengths of the repetitive regions frequently differ between individual chromosomes and can be transmitted as Mendelian markers, making them useful for genetic linkage analysis.     

Heart rate reactivity and heart period variability throughout the first year after heart transplantation

Heart rate reactivity to mental stress is substantially blunted early after heart transplantation, suggesting that the loss of neural modulation limits the cardiovascular response to mental stress. We tested whether reactivity to mental stress recovers during the first year after heart transplantation. Hemodynamic and respiratory responses to mental arithmetic challenge were studied in 20 heart transplant recipients 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. A normal comparison group was studied at equivalent intervals. Heart rate reactivity to mental arithmetic was significantly reduced in the cardiac transplant group compared to the normal subjects. This effect persisted up to 1 year after transplantation. Heart period variability in the heart transplant recipients was minimal in all three-test sessions. The findings suggest that no functional reinnervation or other compensatory adaptation occurs up to 1 year after heart transplantation.     

Studies of Antibody to Herpes Simplex Virus Fcγ-Binding Protein gE in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and Normal Controls

IgG antibody to gE, the Fc gamma-binding herpes simplex 1 (HSV-1) viral glycoprotein, was studied in 49 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and 43 normal controls. Antibody to gD, another important HSV-1 antigen, was assayed in parallel. No difference between RA patients and normal controls was found in levels of anti-gE antibody measured by reactivity of IgG F(ab')2 fragments reacting with gE coated to ELISA plates. No difference in anti-gD antibody was recorded between normals and patients with RA. Levels of IgG anti-IgE antibody did not correlate with quantitative elevations of serum rheumatoid factor (RF) in RA patients. When IgG anti-gE and anti-gD were assayed in 20 patients with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and 22 children controls, no significant differences were noted. However, when individual RFs from patients with RA were tested for reactivity against a panel of affinity-isolated F(ab')2 antibodies to gE, some evidence for individual autospecificity was obtained. Four of 20 monoclonal IgM RFs produced from RA patients' B cells showed marked elevations of reactivity with some RA patients' F(ab')2 antibodies to gE. All four of the monoclonal RFs showing this specificity were derived from RA synovial tissue B cells. These findings may provide support for the concept that some RFs in patients with RA show individual specificity for internal image determinants of IgG antibodies to viral Fc gamma-binding proteins.     

ThinPrep evaluation of fluid samples aspirated from cystic ovarian masses

The cytological evaluation of ovarian cystic fluid using ThinPrep has not been reported. To determine the diagnostic accuracy of ThinPrep cytology in distinguishing between benign and nonbenign ovarian cystic lesions, we examined 65 fluid samples aspirated during intraoperative consultation with subsequent histologic correlation. One ThinPrep slide was prepared from each sample aspirated from surgically removed ovarian cystic masses and reviewed blindly by a panel of three cytopathologists. The parameters used in cytological evaluation were cellularity, cell types, cellular arrangement, and background. Four samples were acellular and excluded from the study. The consensus cytologic diagnoses were compiled for 61 cases which were assigned to one of the following diagnostic categories: negative for malignant cells (40 cases), atypical cytology (13 cases), and suspicious or positive for malignancy (8 cases). Histologic correlation of the cytological benign/negative cases showed that 26/40 (65%) were histologically benign and 14/40 were false-negative (35%, 5 carcinomas and 9 borderline tumors) with 10 of these cases being mucinous tumors. Most false-negative cytologic samples (11/14 or 79%) did not have an epithelial component. Of the 21 cytological nonbenign diagnoses (atypical/suspicious/positive), 15 (71%) were confirmed on histology (10 carcinomas and 5 borderline tumors). However, a nonbenign cytologic diagnosis was rendered in 6 histologically benign cases, including 2 serous cystadenomas, 1 mucinous cystadenoma, 1 serous cystadenofibroma, 1 endometriosis, and 1 corpus luteal cyst. The diagnostic sensitivity by ThinPrep evaluation of ovarian cystic masses is 81% (26/32) for benign and 52% (15/29) for nonbenign lesions. Our results concluded that ThinPrep examination of ovarian cystic fluid is not accurate in distinguishing benign from malignant cysts, given the significant number of false-negative diagnoses. Major contributing factors include sparse cellularity of the fluid samples and mucinous differentiation of the tumors.     

Changes in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes causing invasive disease with non-universal vaccination coverage of the seven-valent conjugate vaccine

The pneumococcal seven-valent conjugate vaccine (PCV7) has been administered in Portugal since late 2001 through the private sector. To evaluate the impact of PCV7 use, the serotypes and antimicrobial susceptibility of pneumococci causing invasive disease in Portugal during 2003–2005 were determined and compared with available data for the period 1999–2002. Changes in serotype distribution compatible with the introduction of PCV7 were shown for children ≤5 years of age from 2003 onwards and for adults from 2004 onwards. PCV7 use with coverage of 43% of children with four doses in the 2004 birth cohort, although substantially below universal coverage, seems to have contributed to greatly reducing the proportion of invasive infections due to vaccine serotypes  4, 6B, 14 and 23F. Similarly, significant indirect effects on the serotype distribution of pneumococci causing infections in adults were noted, with reductions in the proportion of invasive infections caused by serotypes  4, 5 and 14. These changes were accompanied by an increase in the proportion of two non-vaccine serotypes: 19A isolates in all age groups and 7F isolates in adults. Whereas serotypes  6B, 14 and 19A were associated with multidrug resistance, isolates expressing serotypes  4 and 7F were fully susceptible for the most part. There were no changes in the proportion of resistant isolates within each serotype and, in spite of the changes in serotype prevalence, there was not an overall reduction in the proportion of infections caused by resistant pneumococci.     

5-HT1A dysfunction in borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND: A number of challenge studies have reported abnormalities of serotonergic function in borderline personality disorder (BPD). There are, however, problems with the pharmacological probes used in these studies since fenfluramine and m-CPP are not only serotonergic agents but also induce release of catecholamines, particularly dopamine. Therefore, we tested whether subjects with BPD showed a blunted prolactin (PRL) response to flesinoxan, a highly potent and selective 5-HT1A agonist. METHODS: Flesinoxan challenge test was carried out in 20 BPD in-patients and 20 healthy controls matched for gender but not for age. Since 16 BPD in-patients exhibited major depressive co-morbidity, a group of 20 depressed in-patients matched for gender but not for age was also included. RESULTS: BPD in-patients exhibited blunted PRL responses as compared to controls, whereas depressed in-patients did not differ from controls. Moreover, PRL responses were lower among BPD in-patients than among depressed in-patients. Among the BPD in-patients, PRL responses to flesinoxan were lower in patients with past history of suicide attempts (N = 8) than in those with a negative history. CONCLUSIONS: The results show major involvement of serotonergic function in BPD and are consistent with previous studies linking lower serotonergic activity with impulsivity. More particularly, our data suggest that BPD is characterized by lower 5-HT1A receptor sensitivity. Moreover, the data support the involvement of 5-HT1A activity in suicidal behaviour. However, this conclusion is limited because other hormonal responses such as ACTH and cortisol were not assessed, and because BPD was assessed by a self-report questionnaire and not a structured clinical interview.     

Monocytoid B-cell lymphoma with bone marrow and peripheral blood involvement at presentation

A case of malignant lymphoma showing in a lymph node the characteristic morphologic features of the so-called monocytoid B-cell lymphoma (MBCL) is described. This case differs from the reported cases in the literature because atypical cells were observed in the bone marrow biopsy and marrow and peripheral blood smears that were obtained from the patient, a 61-year-old man, during the staging procedures. Lymphocyte surface marker studies on peripheral blood by flow cytometry and DNA analysis revealed a monoclonal population of lambda-positive lymphocytes. The immunophenotype of MBCL cells was studied both in paraffin-embedded lymph node sections by immunoperoxidase method and in peripheral blood by flow cytometric analysis; the cells expressed the SIg with lambda light chain restriction and the HLA-DR antigen; they also had positive results for B-cell-associated antigens, including LN1, LN2, CD 20, CD 22, CD 19, CD 9 but not CD 21, CD 24, and CD 10, T-cell-associated antigens and monocytic markers. In addition, they had negative results for CD 25, CD 38, PCA-1. This report emphasizes that in MBCL, peripheral and marrow involvement may occur at presentation analogous to other low-grade B-cell lymphomas. The immunophenotypic characteristics of MBCL cells, though not pathognomonic, are considered to be helpful in differentiating them from circulating cells of other B-cell lymphomas.     

Detection of infectious bronchitis virus in experimentally infected chickens by an antigen-competitive ELISA

An antigen-competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Ag-C-ELISA) was developed for the detection of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) antigens, M41 strain, in tissues from experimentally infected chickens, or in allantoic fluid harvested from inoculated embryonated eggs. The detection limit of IBV in the Ag-C-ELISA was 10^4.1 median embryo infective doses (EID50)/well. Tracheal and lung samples from chickens vaccinated with 10^2.5 EID50 of live attenuated infectious bronchitis (H120) vaccine were negative in the direct detection Ag-C-ELISA. The results indicate that the Ag-C-ELISA has the potential to detect IBV, either directly in tissue samples or when combined with the passage of material in embryonated eggs, thereby constituting an alternative method for the diagnosis of IBV.     

Limiting factors for cytopathological diagnosis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions: a cytohistological correlation between findings in cervical smears and loop electrical excision procedure.

The present study sought possible factors leading to the cytological diagnosis of atypical squamous cells of uncertain significance (ASCUS) in cases of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). Based on retrospective histopathological analysis of loop electrical excision procedure (LEEP) products that diagnosed HSIL, two study groups were randomly selected. The first was consisted of cases with two consecutive Papanicolaou (Pap) smears with the diagnosis of ASCUS. The second (control) group was represented by cases diagnosed as HSIL by cytology. From the Pap smears diagnosed as ASCUS, the sampling limitations was different from control group (P < 0.05). The median size of the largest lesion in each case with ASCUS was 2.66 mm (+/- 1.71 mm). In the control group, the median size of the largest lesion was 5.15 mm (+/-2.58 mm) (P < 0.05). The size of the lesion and sample limitations led patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasms to be diagnosed as ASCUS for two consecutive times, after a 6-mo period.