Fruit and vegetable consumption and prevention of cancer: the Black Churches United for Better Health project.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the effects of the Black Churches United for Better Health project on increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among rural African American church members in North Carolina. METHODS: Ten counties comprising 50 churches were pair matched and randomly assigned to either intervention or delayed intervention (no program until after the follow-up survey) conditions. A multicomponent intervention was conducted over approximately 20 months. A total of 2519 adults (77.3% response rate) completed both the baseline and 2-year follow-up interviews. RESULTS: The 2 study groups consumed similar amounts of fruits and vegetables at baseline. AT the 2-year follow-up, the intervention group consumed 0.85 (SE = 0.12) servings more than the delayed intervention group (P < .0001). The largest increases were observed among people 66 years or older (1 serving), those with education beyond high school (0.92 servings), those widowed or divorced (0.96 servings), and those attending church frequently (1.3 servings). The last improvement occurred among those aged 18 to 37 years and those who were single. CONCLUSIONS: The project was a successful model for achieving dietary change among rural African Americans.     

Familial Danish dementia: a novel form of cerebral amyloidosis associated with deposition of both amyloid-Dan and amyloid-beta

Familial Danish dementia (FDD) is pathologically characterized by widespread cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), parenchymal protein deposits, and neurofibrillary degeneration. FDD is associated with a mutation of the BRI2 gene located on chromosome 13. In FDD there is a decamer duplication, which abolishes the normal stop codon, resulting in an extended precursor protein and the release of an amyloidogenic fragment, ADan. The aim of this study was to describe the major neuropathological changes in FDD and to assess the distribution of ADan lesions, neurofibrillary pathology, glial, and microglial response using conventional techniques, immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy, and immunoelectron microscopy. We showed that ADan is widely distributed in the central nervous system (CNS) in the leptomeninges, blood vessels, and parenchyma. A predominance of parenchymal pre-amyloid (non-fibrillary) lesions was found. Abeta was also present in a proportion of both vascular and parenchymal lesions. There was severe neurofibrillary pathology, and tau immunoblotting revealed a triplet electrophoretic migration pattern comparable with PHF-tau. FDD is a novel form of CNS amyloidosis with extensive neurofibrillary degeneration occurring with parenchymal, predominantly pre-amyloid rather than amyloid, deposition. These findings support the notion that parenchymal amyloid fibril formation is not a prerequisite for the development of neurofibrillary tangles. The significance of concurrent ADan and Abeta deposition in FDD is under further investigation.     

What are people really eating? The relation between energy intake derived from estimated diet records and intake determined to maintain body weight

Two hundred sixty-six free-living human volunteers, 21-64 y old, were trained by dietitians to record daily their food intake for at least 7 d. Subsequently, they were fed diets of conventional foods adjusted in amounts to maintain their body weight for greater than or equal to 45 d. Comparing their estimated energy intake with the intake determined to maintain weight yielded mean differences of 2365 and 1792 kJ (565 and 428 kcal) in men and women, respectively, representing an underreporting of 18%. Twenty-two individuals (8%) overestimated and 29 (11%) were accurate to within 419 kJ (100 kcal) of their maintenance requirement. The remaining 215 individuals (81%) reported their habitual intake at 2930 +/- 1586 kJ (700 +/- 379 kcal) below that subsequently determined as their maintenance requirement. These findings suggest caution in the interpretation of food-consumption data.     

Topical capsaicin in the management of HIV-associated peripheral neuropathy

Distal symmetrical peripheral neuropathy (DSPN) is a particularly distressing pain syndrome associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Capsaicin has been found to be effective in relieving pain associated with other neuropathic pain syndromes, and is mentioned as a possible topical adjuvant analgesic for the relief of DSPN. This multicenter, controlled, randomized, double-masked clinical trial studied patients with HIV-associated DSPN and compared measures of pain intensity, pain relief, sensory perception, quality of life, mood, and function for patients who received topical capsaicin to the corresponding measures for patients who received the vehicle only. Twenty-six subjects were enrolled in the study. At the end of 1 week, subjects receiving capsaicin tended to report higher current pain scores than did subjects receiving the vehicle (Mann-Whitney test; P = 0.042). The dropout rate was higher for the capsaicin group (67%) than for the vehicle group (18%) (chi 2 test of association; P = 0.014). There were no other statistically significant differences between the capsaicin and vehicle groups with respect to current pain, worst pain, pain relief, sensory perception, quality of life, mood, or function at study entry or at any time during the 4-week trial. These results suggest capsaicin is ineffective in relieving pain associated with HIV-associated DSPN.     

ACTH- and noncontingent footshock-induced recovery of an extinguished passive avoidance response

The effectiveness of both exogenous adrenocorticotropic hormone and noncontingent footshock as agents for the recovery of an extinguished passive avoidance response was assessed. Six groups of male Holtzman rats were administered either adrenocorticotropic hormone (4IU), or a single noncontingent footshock, either 15 minutes, 24 hours, or 7 days prior to retention testing. Two control groups received an injection of the inactive gel vehicle either 15 minutes or 7 days prior to test. Adrenocorticotropic hormone administered either 15 minutes or 24 hours prior to test, as well as noncontingent footshock delivered 24 hours (but not 15 minutes) prior to test, served as effective reinstatement agents. Substantial "spontaneous recovery" of responding precluded evaluation of reinstatement effects at the 7 day retention interval. The persistence of the recovery for at least 24 hours is consistent with the notion that both adrenocorticotropic hormone and noncontingent footshock not only enhance memory retrieval of the original fear conditioning, but also cause the training memory to be further processed.     

Aortic Arch Morphology and Late Systemic Hypertension Following Correction of Coarctation of Aorta

Objective. To reproduce in an adult population a pediatric study that found an association between aortic arch geometry and late systemic hypertension following successful repair of aortic coarctation. Design and Results. Fifty‐one patients with successful repair of coarctation of the aorta had blood pressure measurement at rest and during exercise. After cross‐sectional imaging of the aortic arch, patients were assigned to 1 of 3 previously defined morphological categories: normal, gothic, or crenel. The degree of residual stenosis and the ratio of the height/transverse diameter of the arch (A/T ratio) were calculated. No relationship was found between arch geometry and either resting‐ or exercise‐induced hypertension. Conclusions. We found the classification into 3 morphological types difficult and did not find an association between gothic arch or a high A/T ratio and hypertension.