Digital anaesthesia through the flexor tendon sheath at the palmar level

Summary Sixty five patients with various traumatic lesions of the fingers have been operated on under digital anaesthesia using 3 ml of 2% Mepivacaine injected into the flexor tendon sheath. The anaesthesia was adequate for surgery in all instances except in one patient. No complications were encountered with this technique. The authors studied the mechanism of action by dissecting a cadaveric hand after injecting a tracer (Methylene blue) in place of the local anaesthesia, suggesting, but not proving, that anaesthesia is achieved by blocking the nerve in the area of the injection.

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Résumé Soixante-cinq patients, victimes de traumatismes divers des doigts, ont été opérés sous anesthésie locale, à travers la gaîne du tendon fléchisseur, par 3ml de Mapivacaïne à 2%. Sauf dans un cas, l'anesthésie a toujours permis d'effectuer l'intervention. Il n'y a pas eu de complications dues à cette technique. Les auteurs ont étudié le mécanisme d'action en disséquant la main d'un cadavre auquel avait été, au préalable, administré un marqueur (bleu de méthylène) comme s'il s'agissait d'un anesthésique local. On a pu en conclure que l'anesthésie était obtenue par le blocage du nerfprès du lieu d'injection.

     

Isolation and characterization of a gene encoding a Chlamydia pneumoniae 76-kilodalton protein containing a species-specific epitope.

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a human respiratory pathogen. Unlike the other two Chlamydia species, no species-specific antigen has been defined for C. pneumoniae. An immunoreactive clone containing a 0.8-kb fragment was isolated from a C. pneumoniae (AR-39) genomic library by using anti-C. pneumoniae rabbit immune serum. By Southern hybridization analysis of chromosomal digests of the different Chlamydia spp., the 0.8-kb fragment was shown to react specifically with C. pneumoniae. Subcloning of this fragment into the pGEX-1 lambda T expression vector resulted in the expression of a 62-kDa fusion protein. This fusion protein as well as the cleaved C. pneumoniae peptide were recognized by anti-C. pneumoniae rabbit immune serum, while the glutathione S-transferase moiety was not recognized. The fusion protein was used to produce monospecific rabbit antiserum. This antiserum was shown to react with a 76-kDa protein in all C. pneumoniae isolates tested, specifically recognize C. pneumoniae inclusions in tissue culture, and neutralize infectivity of C. pneumoniae in cell culture. No reactivity was observed with Chlamydia trachomatis or Chlamydia psittaci. To isolate the entire coding sequence of the 76-kDa protein, two partially overlapping fragments of C. pneumoniae DNA, a 3.2-kb HindIII fragment and a 1.2-kb PvuII fragment, were isolated, cloned, and sequenced. No significant sequence similarity was found with any previously reported nucleotide or amino acid sequence of the other Chlamydia species. This C. pneumoniae protein containing a species-specific epitope could play a role in pathogenesis and may be useful as a diagnostic tool.     

A gradient in the duration of the G1 phase in the murine neocortical proliferative epithelium

Neuronogenesis in the neocortical pseudostratified ventricular epithelium (PVE) is initiated rostrolaterally and progresses caudo- medially as development progresses. Here we have measured the cytokinetic parameters and the fractional neuronal output parameter, Q, of laterally located early-maturing regions over the principal embryonic days (E12-E15) of neocortical neuronogenesis in the mouse. These measures are compared with ones previously made of a medial, late- maturing portion of the PVE. Laterally, as medially, the duration of the neuronogenetic interval is 6 days and comprises 11 integer cell cycles. Also, in both lateral and medial areas the length of G1 phase (TG1) increases nearly 4-fold and is the only cell cycle parameter to change. Q progresses essentially identically laterally and medially with respect to the succession of integer cell cycles. Most importantly, from E12 to E13 there is a steeply declining lateral to medial gradient in TG1. The gradient is due both to the lateral to medial graded stage of neuronogenesis and to the stepwise increase in TG1 with each integer cycle during the neuronogenetic interval. To our knowledge this gradient in TG1 of the cerebral PVE is the first cell biological gradient to be demonstrated experimentally in such an extensive proliferative epithelial sheet. We suggest that this gradient in TG1 is the cellular mechanism for positionally encoding a protomap of the neocortex within the PVE.      

Outbreak of leptospirosis in New Caledonia: diagnosis issues and burden of disease

A leptospirosis epidemic affected New Caledonia during the first semester of 2008. A total of 135 cases were diagnosed with a relatively low fatality rate of 3.7%. Heavy rainfalls, related to La Niña, favoured this epidemic. The PCR, routinely used, confirmed 54% of the cases, and the microagglutination test 56%. Epidemiological and economical data on this epidemic are presented and discussed.