Lichen planus and oral cancer: is there a connection between the two?

Oral lichen planus has been regarded as a condition with potential for malignant transformation. Critical evaluation of carcinoma cases arising in purported LP shows findings that raise several questions about the accuracy of initial LP diagnoses.     

Long-term treatment outcomes of coretherm microwave feedback thermotherapy

The gold standard for definitive management of symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). Despite its efficacy, TURP has significant morbidity/mortality concerns such as hemorrhage and transurethral resection syndrome. This is especially worrisome for the medically high-risk patient, but the high rates of retrograde ejaculation found with TURP also pose a problem for young patients. A minimally invasive, outpatient alternative to TURP that has long-term efficacy, low morbidity/mortality, and provides a cost-effective advantage is in high demand. This review article discusses microwave thermotherapy as such an option and reports the long-term experience with the CoreTherm (CoreTherm Operations AB, Sweden) device.     

Partial replication of a DRD4 association in ADHD individuals using a statistically derived quantitative trait for ADHD in a family-based association test.

BACKGROUND: Previous research found an association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of DRD4 and statistically derived phenotypes generated from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. We sought to replicate this finding by using the same methodology in an independent sample of ADHD individuals. METHODS: Four SNPs were genotyped in and around DRD4 in 2631 individuals in 642 families. We developed a quantitative phenotype at each SNP by weighting nine inattentive and nine hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. The weights were selected to maximize the heritability at each SNP. Once a quantitative phenotype was generated at each SNP, the screening procedure implemented in PBAT was used to select and test the five SNPs/genetic model combinations with the greatest power to detect an association for DRD4. RESULTS: One of the four SNPs was associated with the quantitative phenotypes generated from the ADHD symptoms (corrected p-values = .02). A rank ordering of the correlation between each of the ADHD symptoms and the quantitative phenotype suggested that hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were more strongly correlated with the phenotype; however, including inattentive symptoms was necessary to achieve a significant result. CONCLUSIONS: This study partially replicated a previous finding by identifying an association between rs7124601 and a quantitative trait generated from ADHD symptoms. The rs7124601 is in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with the SNPs identified previously. In contrast to the previous study, this finding suggests that both hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive symptoms are important in the association.     

Our experience with cochlear implants: have we erred in our expectations?

Many clinicians feel that single-channel cochlear implants are limited in the information they can provide. This has led to some common misconceptions regarding single-channel and multichannel systems. At the House Ear Institute, a growing number of children with the 3M/House single-channel implant are demonstrating open-set understanding of speech on measures designed to test such abilities in children. As a result, we have revised our thinking regarding the potential of this device.     

Lamotrigine in the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy

An open trial was conducted to study the potential efficacy of lamotrigine, a novel antiepileptic agent that blocks voltage-sensitive sodium channels and inhibits the release of glutamate, in relieving the pain associated with diabetic neuropathy. Subsequent to a 1 week washout period from previous analgesics, lamotrigine was administered at a dose of 25 mg/day for 1 week. The dose was doubled on a weekly basis up to 400 mg/day over 6 weeks. The McGill pain questionnaire (MPQ), spontaneous pain and a series of mechanical and thermal stimuli-induced pain were measured with the use of 0–100 visual analogue scale (VAS), on seven office visits. Pain level was also recorded by each patient twice daily, 1 week before, during, and 2 weeks after the treatment period with the use of a 0–10 numerical pain scale (NPS). Quantitative mechanical (Von Frey filaments) and thermal testing (QTT), and routine blood tests were performed at the beginning and at the end of the study. Thirteen patients completed the study. Spontaneous pain measured by VAS and NPS gradually dropped from a baseline of 49 ± 8 and 6.8 ± 0.6, to 20 ± 8.6 ( p < 0.001) and 4.3 ± 0.9 ( p < 0.001), respectively, at the end of the treatment period. Similarly, cold allodynia dropped from 38 ± 9.2 to 16 ± 15.3 ( p = 0.01), and the MPQ score from 13.6 ± 0.8 to 11.0 ± 1.5 ( p < 0.01). In contrast, no significant changes were found in the QTT, mechanical pain thresholds and laboratory results. Two patients were withdrawn from the study because of adverse effects. A long-term follow up showed that most patients were still using lamotrigine 6 months after the end of the study. The results of the study suggest that lamotrigine is potentially effective and safe in treating painful diabetic neuropathy.     

Specific interaction between a Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein and a DNA element associated with certain autonomously replicating sequences.

We have isolated a protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae that binds specifically to a nucleotide sequence associated with the autonomously replicating sequence (ARS) ARS120, located in the telomeric region of a yeast chromosome. "Footprinting" analysis revealed that a 26-base-pair DNA sequence, 5'-CAAGTGCCGTGCATAATGATGTGGGT-3', was protected by this protein from DNase I digestion. A plasmid containing 48 direct tandem repeats of this oligonucleotide was constructed and used to affinity-purify the binding activity. The purified protein, OBF1 (origin binding factor), showed specific binding to ARS120. The 26-base-pair OBF1-protected sequence was sufficient for the recognition and binding of the protein, since the mobility of a DNA fragment containing the synthetic binding site was retarded in agarose gels when incubated with OBF1. By performing competition experiments with a number of different ARSs, we showed that OBF1 binds tightly to some but not all ARSs. Interestingly, OBF1 does not appear to have a discernible affinity for ARS1 or the ARSs associated with mating type loci, HML alpha and HMRa, which are substrates for a DNA-binding activity reported by others. Since OBF1 appears to bind to DNA associated with a number of ARSs, we suggest that this protein may have a function related to ARS activity, perhaps in the initiation of DNA replication at selected ARSs.