Controlled trial of clinical utility of serum salicylate monitoring in rheumatoid arthritis

A crossover double-blind controlled trial was performed on 36 patients with rheumatoid arthritis to assess the necessity for serum salicylate monitoring in determining optimal dosage. There was no clinically or statistically significant increase in the clinical improvement of patients associated with serum monitoring but potentially toxic serum levels occurred without tinnitus when serum monitoring was not used.     

Oligonucleotide fingerprint analyses of influenza C virion RNA recovered from five different isolates

Summary Five different isolates of influenza C virus which were isolated over a period of 32 years and from four different continents were compared by RNA genome oligonucleotide fingerprinting analyses. The earliest isolate of influenza C virus was reported in 1949 byTaylor (19) and served as a reference strain for this study.The results obtained using this technique of comparing relatedness between viruses clearly showed that all strains are distinct. However, the similarities in the pattern of the oligonucleotide fingerprints are marked for the more recent virus isolates (1966–1979), whereas the reference strain C/Taylor shows more pronounced differences.The results are consistant with the high degree of serological crossreaction amongst influenza C viruses isolated over a long period of time, a property which sets this group of viruses apart from type A and B members of the orthomyxoviridae.With 3 Figures     

Hormone dependency and histological types of prostatic carcinoma

In comparative histological and cytological studies on 270 prostatic carcinoma patients highly and moderately differentiated tumors were found to be more frequent histologically than cytologically. An early and reliable sign of response to hormone therapy proved to be reticularization and vacuolization of the nuclear chromatin. Follow-up studies by means of multiple aspiration biopsies with cytologic examinations seem to be more reliable in prognostic terms than examination of the histological tumor structure.     

Altered modulation of prefrontal and subcortical brain activity in newly diagnosed schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder. A regional cerebral blood flow study.

To measure prefrontal and subcortical activity during a cognitive task, we examined 19 newly diagnosed schizophrenics and patients with schizophreniform psychosis. Seven healthy volunteers served as controls. The patients were drug naive or had received neuroleptics for a few days only. Cerebral blood flow distribution was depicted by single photon emission computed tomography at rest and during activation with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. A significant relative activation deficit in the left inferior-prefrontal region was revealed during the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in the patient group. Furthermore, the patients had impaired striatal suppression on the left side during the cognitive task. The test performance was significantly impaired in the patients. The inability to reduce striatal activity may be due to a lack of corticostriatal feedback during prefrontal activation.     

Activation of glucocorticoid receptors and the effect of naloxone during hemorrhagic hypotension.

Evidence indicates that endogenous opioid peptides and glucocorticoids participate in the control of cardiovascular regulation during hemorrhagic shock. In the present study, we investigated a possible interaction between brain opioid peptides and adrenal corticosteroids regarding the control of arterial pressure during hemorrhage. The bleeding volumes required to lower arterial pressure to 80, 60 and 40 mmHg were studied in anesthetized sham-operated (SHAM) and adrenalectomized (ADX) rats. I.c.v. administration of 10 micrograms of naloxone resulted in a significant increase in the bleeding volume required to lower arterial pressure from 60 to 40 mmHg in SHAM animals, whereas no effect of naloxone was observed in ADX animals. Replacement therapy with a 100% corticosterone pellet (100 mg, s.c.), but not with a 12.5% corticosterone pellet (12.5 mg corticosterone and 87.5 mg cholesterol, s.c.), resulted in an effect of naloxone on the bleeding volume in ADX animals. The effect of replacement therapy could be inhibited by i.c.v. pretreatment with the synthetic glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, RU38486 (100 ng). These data suggest that (1) opioid mechanisms are involved in the regulation of blood pressure during hemorrhage, and (2) occupancy of glucocorticoid receptors is required for naloxone to exert its hemodynamic effect during hemorrhagic hypotension in ADX rats.     

用两株McAb及BA—ELISA法检测肺癌患者血清中肺癌相关抗原

肿瘤患者血清中肿瘤相关抗原含量甚微,通常需要高度敏感的测定系统方能进行检测.生物素-亲和素系统(BSA)是近年来建立的一种生物反应放大系统,由于BSA亲合力高、特异性强反应迅速,故自70年代后期引入免疫技术以来,大大改善和丰富了免疫学试验,成为新的检测系统.本实验用生物素标记两株抗人肺癌McAb——Lc86aE4和Lc86aC5,建立了BA-ELISA方法,并对肺癌患者血清中肺癌相关抗原(lung carcinoma associated antigen,LAA)进行了检测,证实BA-ELISA法具有特异、敏感及重复性好等优点.