Industry Funding Is Correlated With Publication Productivity of US Academic Radiation Oncologists

Purpose

Industry payments to physicians are financial conflicts of interest and may influence research findings and medical decisions. We aim to (1) characterize industry payments within radiation oncology; and (2) explore the potential correlation between receiving disclosed industry payments and academic productivity.

Appearances of posterior osteophytes after sound anterior interbody fusion in the cervical spine: a high-definition computed myelographic study

Summary Whether posterior osteophytes in the cervical spine resorb after anterior interbody fusion is controversial. Previous studies have only used plain films. In order to study remodelling, a retrospective study of 53 patients using high-definition CT was performed. There was no evidence of remodelling or resorption of osteophytes and persistent osteophytes continued to deform the spinal cord for up to 12 years after fusion. The importance of this in relation to cervical spinal surgery is that every effort should be made to remove posterior osteophytes during anterior interbody fusion.     

Intraaccumbens baclofen selectively enhances feeding behavior in the rat

Intraaccumbens infusions of the GABA(B) agonist baclofen are known to stimulate food intake in the rat. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of baclofen infusion on nonfood-related chewing and on the consumption of a palatable fluid. Rats were bilaterally infused with baclofen (188 ng in 1 microL) or saline, and tested in a situation in which food was available in one or two locations and wood blocks might also be present. Baclofen-infused animals showed no enhancement of chewing directed at the wood blocks, but showed increased food consumption regardless of food location. In a second, separate test we recorded the microstructural parameters for drinking of a palatable glucose/saccharin mixture. Baclofen infusion had no effect on overall intake, although bout size was reduced and the number of bouts was increased. These data confirm that baclofen-stimulated food intake following accumbens infusion is a robust and substantial phenomenon that appears to be selective to solid food. It is likely to result from relatively direct activation of neural circuits for feeding, rather than an indirect facilitation consequent upon changes in taste processings, as has been suggested for some other examples of drug-induced hyperphagia.     

Induction of apoptosis in murine tumors by cyclophosphamide

Whereas there have been several recent reports of the induction of apoptosis by chemotherapy agents in cell culture systems, much less is known about the role of this mode of cell death in tumors treated in vivo. We therefore quantitated the proportion of apoptotic cells induced as a function of time and dose in two murine tumors treated with cyclophosphamide in vivo. The two tumors were a mammary adenocarcinoma, MCa-4, and an ovarian adenocarcinoma, OCa-1. The percent apoptosis was scored from stained histological sections of the tumors using a system based on the characteristic features of the apoptotic nuclei. The kinetics of apoptosis development were determined over a 5-day period following treatment of the mice with 200 mg/kg. The percent apoptosis peaked between 10–18 h in both tumors and then slowly declined to background levels by 5 days after treatment. The dose responses showed that even much lower doses, 25 mg/kg, could induce significant apoptosis and that the proportion of apoptotic cells plateaued at doses higher than 100 mg/kg. These results are compared and contrasted with our previous reports on apoptosis induction in these same tumors with ionizing radiation.The Work reported in this paper was supported by research grants CA-06294 and CA-16672 awarded by the National Cancer Institute, Department of Health and Human Services, and by the Katharine Unsworth Memorial Fund     

Inhibitory effects of retinoids on development of squamous metaplasia in rat mammary epithelial organoids cultured in Matrigel

Squamous metaplasia (SQM) developed in cultures of rat mammary organoids in reconstituted basement membrane, Matrigel, under either a complete hormone medium (CHM) or a serum-free mammary epithelium growth medium (MEGM). Organoids cultured in CHM gave rise to fewer such SQM (˜5%) than those in MEGM (˜16%). Formation of SQM was completely suppressed when retinoids were added to CHM. However, a few SQM were still observed in cultures in MEGM with added retinoids. Addition of 5% fetal bovine serum suppressed development of SQM cultured in MEGM. Delayed addition of retinoids also inhibited further development of SQM. Development of SQM from mammary epithelial cells is not common, and regulatory molecules other than retinoids apparently are involved in their formation and prevention.     

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone-induced changes in testosterone secretion in normal women

This study investigated the pattern of testosterone (T) secretion in spontaneous (n = 14) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-treated (n = 6) menstrual cycles in normal women. In spontaneous cycles, T was found to increase progressively over the follicular phase (P less than or equal to 0.001), with the peak T value occurring on cycle day 0 (luteinizing hormone [LH] surge). The mean (+/- standard error of the mean [SEM]) T values on cycle day -14 and cycle day 0 were 35 +/- 4 and 51 +/- 4 ng/dl, respectively. GnRH was administered intravenously to six women at 1.3 to 1.7 micrograms per dose every 30 minutes in a study that assessed the ovarian effects of a rapid gonadotropin pulse frequency. In three of the women, the T levels followed a normal follicular phase pattern, whereas in the remaining three GnRH-treated women, there were marked increases in T with peak levels of 97, 123, and 81 ng/dl on day 0. The GnRH-treated subgroup with increased T levels had significantly increased follicular levels of LH, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), LH-bio and number of preovulatory ovarian follicles. This study demonstrated that increased levels of LH, FSH, and LH/FSH are capable of acutely increasing the secretion of ovarian androgens.     

The effects of inducing a follicular phase gonadotropin secretory pattern in normal women during the luteal phase

It has been hypothesized that the slowing of the luteinizing hormone (LH) pulse frequency in the luteal phase may be necessary for the demise of the corpus luteum, the intercycle rise in baseline follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), or ovarian follicular development in the subsequent cycle. For assessment of the physiologic role of the luteal phase LH pulse pattern, this pattern was converted to a follicular pattern in six normal women who used exogenous gonadotropin-releasing hormone administered with a portable pump (dose 50 to 100 ng/kg subcutaneously every 90 minutes beginning in the early luteal [n = 3] and midluteal [n = 3] cycle phases). There was no significant difference between the treated and the subsequent cycle for luteal progesterone production [186.3 versus 159.0 (ng/ml) day], preovulatory follicular size (23.1 versus 22.5 mm), estradiol levels, luteal phase length (15.6 versus 14.3 days), and daily gonadotropin concentrations including the intercycle FSH rise (160.5 versus 139.1 ng/ml). A follicular phase gonadotropin pulse pattern (increased frequency, decreased amplitude) in the luteal phase had no discernible effects on the corpus luteum or on follicular development in the subsequent cycle.     

Waiver of consent in studies of acute brain injury

A multicenter trial of hypothermia in patients with acute brain injury, designed to accrue 140 patients per year and randomizing in less than 6 h from injury, enrolled 392 patients. The design was to achieve 33 degrees C within 8 h after injury. For the first 9 months of the trial, the only consent mechanism permitted by federal regulations was prospective, informed consent. In the subsequent 33 months, after a change in federal regulations, waiver of consent could be used when family could not be located. Waiver of consent was used in 62% of patients enrolled. In the first 9 months of the trial, accrual was 65 patients. In the subsequent 3 years, an average yearly accrual was 127 patients. In the first 9 months, time from injury to randomization was 4.5 +/- 1.2 h; time to achievement of target temperature was 11.7 +/- 2.6 h. In years when waiver of consent was permitted, randomization time was 4.1 +/- 1.1 h, and time to target temperature was 7.9 +/- 2.7 h. For all years of the study, waiver of consent was used for 53% of minorities, 47% of unskilled workers, 33% of nonminorities, and 29% of skilled or professional workers. Minorities were underrepresented by 30% in the first 9 months of the study. We conclude that it is impracticable and unjust to perform studies of acute brain injury without use of waiver of consent when the treatment window is less than 6 h.     

Changes in cyclotorsion and vertical eye alignment during prolonged monocular occlusion

When binocular vision is prevented with monocular occlusion, the two eyes assume a position of rest related to the combination of underlying tonic innervation of the oculomotor system, cross-coupled accommodative-vergence input and vergence responses to perceptual cues for spatial location relative to the head. When the latter two are controlled, the covered eye has been shown in the majority of subjects to turn outward (exophoria) and upward (hyperphoria) after prolonged monocular occlusion. The present study investigates the change in torsional eye alignment and its relation to vertical eye alignment after eight hours of monocular occlusion. The results revealed an excyclophoria during occlusion in four out of five subjects. The patched eye also became elevated in two subjects and depressed in two others. Thus, during prolonged monocular occlusion, the relative directions of cyclophoria and vertical phoria appear to be independent. In addition, there were non-concomitant changes in vertical phoria with horizontal gaze, toward a state where the adducted eye was elevated relative to the abducted eye. Simulations with Orbit(TM) suggest that these non-concomitant changes in vertical phoria with a concomitant excyclophoria may be based upon orbital mechanics. Excyclophoria appears to be the baseline state of binocular alignment.