Use of ambulance dispatch data as an early warning system for communitywide influenzalike illness,New York City

In 1998, the New York City Department of Health and the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management began monitoring the volume of ambulance dispatch calls as a surveillance tool for biologic terrorism. We adapted statistical techniques designed to measure excess influenza mortality and applied them to outbreak detection using ambulance dispatch data. Since 1999, we have been performing serial daily regressions to determine the alarm threshold for the current day. In this article, we evaluate this approach by simulating a series of 2,200 daily regressions. In the influenza detection implementation of this model, there were 71 (3.2%) alarms at the 99% level. Of these alarms, 64 (90%) occurred shortly before or during a period of peak influenza in each of six influenza seasons. In the bioterrorism detection implementation of this methodology, after accounting for current influenza activity, there were 24 (1.1%) alarms at the 99% level. Two occurred during a large snowstorm, 1 is unexplained, and 21 occurred shortly before or during a period of peak influenza activity in each of six influenza seasons. Our findings suggest that this surveillance system is sensitive to communitywide respiratory outbreaks with relatively few false alarms. More work needs to be done to evaluate the sensitivity of this approach for detecting nonrespiratory illness and more localized outbreaks.     

Dose response and toxicity of doxorubicin microspheres in a rat tumor model.

The therapeutic response and toxic effects of chemotherapy using several doses of doxorubicin in conventional solution form or bound to an ion-exchange resin were compared in a rat tumor model, to assess the relationship of drug dose to therapeutic efficacy and associated toxicity. Single bolus injections of 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 7.5 and 9.0 mg/kg were administered via the abdominal aorta to rats bearing hindlimb tumors. Tumor size was measured serially and the growth rates of treated groups were compared with a control growth curve. In addition, the effect of empty microspheres on tumor growth rate was assessed. The levels of circulating white blood cells were measured and compared to control levels to provide an indication of the severity of bone marrow toxicity experienced by each form of treatment. Finally, any difference in the distribution of doxorubicin to tumor, hindlimb and cardiac tissue following administration of doxorubicin as free drug or on microspheres was ascertained. Empty ion-exchange resin exerted a small although significant detrimental effect on tumor growth which may be explained by the embolization of microspheres in the precapillary blood vessels of the tumor resulting in a transient delay in tumor growth rate. The lowest dose of doxorubicin produced a significantly better therapeutic response when administered in the free drug form, but higher doses elicited an equivalent delay in tumor growth for both drug microsphere and free drug groups in a dose-dependent manner, with the maximum anti-tumor response occurring at the highest dose. Treatment with free doxorubicin at high doses resulted in significant reductions of circulating white blood cells suggesting the occurrence of bone marrow toxicity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

实验动物大白鼠型流行性出血热流行病学和临床症状调查

本文对59名接触实验动物大白鼠引起23例流行性出血热(EHF)的流行病学和临床症状进行了调查,发病率为38.98%。发病的有副教授、讲师、助教、研究生等。发病多在春季,年龄组在21～40岁,男多于女。经间接免疫荧光技术检查,大白鼠肺EHFV抗原阳性率为32.69%。临床分型以中型为多,其次为重型和轻型。临床症状以发热、头痛、腰痛、全身痛、食欲不振、酒醉貌为主,没有死亡病例。血清间接免疫荧光抗体IgG在1:320～1:5 120之间的占91.30%。     

单向中频电加助透液防治瘢痕增生

为防治瘢痕增生，寻求有效治疗方法，我们采用单向中频电加助透液治疗瘢痕增生患者３３例，痊愈显效率为６４％，总有效率为８８％。结果表明，单向中频电加助透液能增强导入作用，是防治瘢痕增生的有效方法。     

复方平阳霉素注射治疗翼状胬肉(附282例临床分析)

平阳霉素局部注射治疗282例翼状胬肉结果表明:总有效率为90.6％、复发性胬肉有效率100％。平阳霉素是一种抗癌抗生素,药理作用为抑制胸腺嘧啶核苷参与DNA,抑制血管新生和翼状胬肉局部注射少量药物真接干扰胬肉新陈代谢、致使胬肉逐渐萎缩。平阳霉素胬肉体部注射变极为强烈的增生倾向和带有破坏性趋势为一系列退行性改变,则是复方平阳霉素对翼状胬肉发生治疗作用的临床特征。     

人脑胶质瘤逃避免疫监视机制的研究

为研究胶质瘤逃避免疫监视的机制，检测了胶质瘤体外细胞系培养上清（SN）抗PHA－P刺激正常人及胶质瘤患者外周血淋巴细胞增殖的作用。证实了胶质瘤可自分泌免疫抑制因子。经抗TGFβ2单抗中和SN试验，TGFβ2免疫组化染色及Northern杂交进一步表明该因子主要成分为TGFβ2并对胶质瘤患者血浆皮质醇，生长激素及儿茶酚胺含量及细胞免疫功能进行检测，发现血浆去甲肾上腺素显著降低，其水平与CD8亚群％呈负相关，与CD4／CD8比值及淋巴细胞增殖率呈正相关。初步提示存在胶质瘤的情况下，神经－免疫调控紊乱，可能起着抑制性调节作用。