The use of whole body diffusion-weighted post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging in timing of perinatal deaths

International Journal of Legal Medicine - Diffusion-weighted MRI provides information regarding body water movement following death, which may be an imaging marker of post-mortem interval (time...     

Smoking and disease severity in rheumatoid arthritis: Association with polymorphism at the glutathione S‐transferase M1 locus

Objective

To determine whether the relationship between smoking and disease severity in women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with polymorphism at the glutathione S‐transferase (GST) M1 locus.

Methods

Genotyping for GSTM1 was carried out using polymerase chain reaction methodology on 164 women with established RA. Smoking history was obtained on each patient. Radiographic damage was measured by the Larsen score, and functional outcome was assessed by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Data were analyzed by multiple regression analyses, with correction for age and disease duration.

Results

Ever having smoked was associated with a worse radiographic and functional outcome than was never having smoked. Both past and current smoking were associated with increased disease severity. Stratification by GSTM1 status revealed that polymorphism at this locus affected the relationship between smoking and disease outcome measures. Patients who lacked the GSTM1 gene and had ever smoked had significantly higher Larsen and HAQ scores than did those who lacked the gene and had never smoked. Radiographic outcome in these patients was worse than that in patients who had the GSTM1 gene and who had smoked. The associations were not affected by correction for socioeconomic status. Rheumatoid factor (RF) production was found to be associated with smoking in only the GSTM1‐null patients.

Conclusion

Our data suggest that disease outcome in female RA patients with a history of smoking is significantly worse than in those who have never smoked. Smoking was associated with the most severe disease in patients who carried the GSTM1‐null polymorphism. This association may be due in part to a relationship between the GSTM1 polymorphism and RF production in smokers.

     

Measurement of antibiotic consumption: A practical guide to the use of the Anatomical Thgerapeutic Chemical classification and Definied Daily Dose system methodology in Canada.

Despite the global public health importance of resistance of microorganisms to the effects of antibiotics, and the direct relationship of consumption to resistance, little information is available concerning levels of consumption in Canadian hospitals and out-patient settings. The present paper provides practical advice on the use of administrative pharmacy data to address this need. Focus is made on the use of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification and Defined Daily Dose system. Examples of consumption data from Canadian community and hospital settings, with comparisons to international data, are used to incite interest and to propose uses of this information. It is hoped that all persons responsible for policy decisions regarding licensing, reimbursement, prescribing guidelines, formulary controls or any other structure pertaining to antimicrobial use become conversant with the concepts of population antibiotic consumption and that this paper provides them with the impetus and direction to begin accurately measuring and comparing antibiotic use in their jurisdictions.     

Biological resurfacing of the knee: a review of surgical management

Lesions of the articular surfaces of the knee have been managed by various techniques over the last 50 years. Surgical management has involved: excising the damaged area, refashioning the underlying bone to produce a fibrous response, and introducing allograft, autograft and synthetic materials to encourage a repair matrix. The techniques and their pitfalls are reviewed and discussed, and suggestions made as to the direction of future studies for the repair of osteochondral lesions in the painful knee.     

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Ireland: epidemiological aspects 1980-2002

Surveillance for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been carried out in the Republic of Ireland since 1980. Initial surveillance was passive and based on consented autopsy confirmation of CJD in patients in whom there was a high index of clinical suspicion. Since 1999, an active surveillance programme involving formal notification of all suspect CJD cases has been in place. The annual mortality rate has increased from 0.34 cases/million in 1980 to 1.27 cases/million in 2001. In all, 29 cases have been pathologically confirmed: 1 had variant CJD (vCJD), 1 had iatrogenic human growth hormone-induced CJD and 1 had fatal insomnia. Sporadic CJD (sCJD) accounted for the remainder. This paper details the change in incidence over 22 years as the surveillance programme in Ireland got under way; the increased incidence is attributed to better case ascertainment, as has occurred in other countries where active surveillance programmes have been established.