Family Dinner and Disordered Eating Behaviors in a Large Cohort of Adolescents

We aimed to examine longitudinal associations between family dinner and disordered eating behaviors among adolescents. We studied 7535 females and 5913 males, 9 to 14 years of age in 1996. We performed multivariable logistic regression to assess the associations of previous year family dinner with 1-year incidence of each of 3 outcomes: purging, binge eating, and frequent dieting. Compared to those who ate family dinner “never or some days,” female adolescents who ate family dinner at least most days were less likely to initiate purging, binge eating, and frequent dieting. Estimates of association among males were similar in direction and magnitude, although lower frequency of the outcomes resulted in less precise estimates and fewer statistically significant results.     

Lung cancer: diagnosis and management

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with an average five-year survival rate of 15 percent. Smoking remains the predominant risk factor for lung cancer. Lung cancers are categorized as small cell carcinoma or non-small cell carcinoma (e.g., adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma). These categories are used for treatment decisions and determining prognosis. Signs and symptoms may vary depending on tumor type and extent of metastases. The diagnostic evaluation of patients with suspected lung cancer includes tissue diagnosis; a complete staging work-up, including evaluation of metastases; and a functional patient evaluation. Histologic diagnosis may be obtained with sputum cytology, thoracentesis, accessible lymph node biopsy, bronchoscopy, transthoracic needle aspiration, video-assisted thoracoscopy, or thoracotomy. Initial evaluation for metastatic disease relies on patient history and physical examination, laboratory tests, chest computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and tissue confirmation of mediastinal involvement. Further evaluation for metastases depends on the clinical presentation. Treatment and prognosis are closely tied to the type and stage of the tumor identified. For stages I through IIIA non-small cell carcinoma, surgical resection is preferred. Advanced non-small cell carcinoma is treated with a multimodality approach that may include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and palliative care. Chemotherapy (combined with radiotherapy for limited disease) is the mainstay of treatment for small cell carcinoma. No major organization recommends screening for early detection of lung cancer, although screening has interested researchers and physicians. Smoking cessation remains the critical component of preventive primary care.     

Do medical procedures in the arm increase the risk of lymphoedema after axillary surgery? A review

Lymphoedema of the arm is a potentially serious consequence of any axillary procedure performed during the management of breast cancer. In an attempt to reduce its incidence and severity, patients are instructed to avoid venepunctures and blood pressure measurements on the treated arm. These precautions are not possible in some patients and attempts to adhere to them can cause discomfort, anxiety and stress for both patients and their health‐care workers. The strength with which these recommendations are made is in contrast to the level of evidence underpinning them. This paper reviews this evidence regarding the safety, or lack thereof, of blood pressure monitoring and intravenous puncture in women who have had axillary surgery. With this evidence generally being anecdotal in nature, there appears to be no rigorous evidence‐based support for the risk‐reduction behaviours of avoiding blood pressure monitoring and venepuncture in the affected arm in the prevention of lymphoedema after axillary procedure. A clinical trial was proposed to investigate whether such avoidance measures were valuable, but failed during its inception. There remains a need for research from prospective trials on this controversial topic to determine the most appropriate patient recommendations that should be provided after axillary procedure regarding the risks for development of lymphoedema.     

Elevated Concentrations of Neurofilament Light Chain in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Bipolar Disorder Patients

Bipolar disorder (BD) is characterized by mood swings between manic and depressive states. The etiology and pathogenesis of BD is unclear, but many of the affected cognitive domains, as well as neuroanatomical abnormalities, resemble symptoms and signs of small vessel disease. In small vessel disease, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers reflecting damages in different cell types and subcellular structures of the brain have been established. Hence, we hypothesized that CSF markers related to small vessel disease may also be applicable as biomarkers for BD. To investigate this hypothesis, we sampled CSF from 133 patients with BD and 86 healthy controls. The concentrations of neurofilament light chain (NF-L), myelin basic protein (MBP), S100B, and heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) were measured in CSF and analyzed in relation to diagnosis, clinical characteristics, and ongoing medications. Hereby we found an elevation of the marker of subcortical axonal damage, NF-L, in bipolar subjects. We also identified positive associations between NF-L and treatment with atypical antipsychotics, MBP and lamotrigine, and H-FABP and lithium. These findings indicate axonal damage as an underlying neuropathological component of bipolar disorder, although the clinical value of elevated NF-L remains to be validated in follow-up studies. The associations between current medications and CSF brain injury markers might aid in the understanding of both therapeutic and adverse effects of these drugs.     

Characterization of the effects of cultured vascular cells on the activation of blood coagulation

The coagulant properties of intact bovine vascular cells (aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells) and human vascular cells (cutaneous and foreskin microvascular cells, umbilical venous endothelium) grown in vitro were studied. Compared to nonvascular cells (fibroblasts, corneal endothelial cells, fetal lung or intestinal mucosal cells), vascular cells had little procoagulant activity. Radioimmunologic measurement of thrombin in recalcified plasma demonstrated markedly lower concentrations of thrombin in the presence of vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells compared to corneal endothelial and fetal lung cells. The low thrombin concentrations were not a consequence of thrombin binding to the vascular cells nor were they due to accelerated thrombin inactivation by antithrombin-III or alpha 2-macroglobulin. Neither vascular cells nor the nonvascular cells promoted contact activation of plasma as measured by a sensitive specific assay for kallikrein. Studies with intact cell monolayers and purified factors VIIa and X indicated that while nonvascular cells express tissue factor activity, vascular cells do not exhibit this property. These data suggest that the nonthrombogenic nature of intact vascular cells is due to their failure to initiate contact activation and to express tissue factor activity. In addition, the primary difference in coagulant potential between vascular cells and nonvascular cells is the lack of tissue factor expression by the vascular cells.     

Response to 2'-deoxycoformycin after failure of interferon-alpha in nonsplenectomized patients with hairy cell leukemia

Two patients with hairy cell leukemia with massive splenomegaly and severe pancytopenia were treated with recombinant alpha-A interferon (IFN-alpha-2a). There was no significant response to a trial of IFN- alpha-2a (11 and 20 weeks) with respect to blood counts or spleen size. Subsequent treatment with 2'-deoxycoformycin (dCF) for 8 consecutive weeks (4 mg/m2/wk) resulted in normalization of spleen size and a normalization of peripheral blood counts and bone marrow in one patient. The second patient demonstrated a reduction in spleen size and improved blood counts following 9 weeks of dCF therapy but eventually became refractory. This demonstrates that dCF is non-cross-resistant with interferon and confirms the efficacy of dCF in nonsplenectomized patients.