A new preclinical femoral head osteonecrosis model in sheep

Introduction  

Animal models have been used as insight into the pathogenesis of osteonecrosis, even though most have failed to reproduce all stages of human disease, limiting progression in experimental treatment modalities. A new surgically induced animal model of femoral head osteonecrosis in sheep is presented.     

Effect of topical anti-inflammatory drugs on corneal and limbal wound healing

PURPOSE: To examine the effect of topical treatment with either steroidal or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on the wound healing of corneal and limbal incisions using histologic criteria. SETTING: Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois, USA. METHODS: Eighteen eyes of 9 cats were used for the study. All right eyes received a temporal limbal incision and the left eyes, a clear corneal incision. All eyes were treated with ofloxacin 0.3% postoperatively for 3 days. The animals were equally divided among 3 groups. Group 1 received topical steroid drops (prednisolone acetate 1%) for 7 days maximum; Group 2 received topical NSAID drops (ketorolac tromethamine 0.5%) for 7 days maximum; Group 3 received no additional treatment. One animal from each group was killed and the eye enucleated 3, 7, or 28 days postoperatively. The eyes were processed for staining with hematoxylin-eosin and smooth muscle actin, and corneal sections were evaluated in a blind fashion by an ophthalmic pathologist. RESULTS: Three and 7 days after surgery (1) the limbal incision exhibited more prominent wound healing than the similarly treated clear corneal incision, and (2) the steroid-treated corneas had less wound healing than untreated or NSAID-treated corneas. At 28 days, the wounds in all eyes were almost completely healed. CONCLUSIONS: Limbal incisions heal faster than clear corneal incisions. Steroids, but not NSAIDs, inhibit wound healing. Cataract surgery using limbal incisions and postoperative topical NSAIDs may result in faster wound healing and provide a reduced risk of related postoperative complications.     

The functional locus of intrusions: encoding or retrieval?

Many current accounts of the origin of intrusions and other confabulatory-like phenomena emphasize the role of a retrieval or postretrieval deficit in these disorders. In the experiments reported herein we examine whether the presence of an interfering task at encoding elicits more intrusions in normal subjects than the presence of an interfering task at retrieval. In Experiment 1, performance in story recall without interference was compared to the performance with an interfering task at retrieval. In Experiment 2, the performance in story recall with an interfering task at encoding was compared to performance in story recall with interference at encoding and retrieval. Results suggest that interference at retrieval has no effect on the accuracy of recall and on intrusions. Interference at encoding compared to interference at encoding and retrieval (Experiment 2) had no effect on the accuracy of recall and on frequency of intrusions. Cross-experiment comparisons suggest that interference at encoding affects both the accuracy of retrieval and the probability of intrusions in recall. These results suggest that encoding processes, more than retrieval processes, have a role in eliciting intrusions.     

Assessing clinical probability of organic disease in patients with involuntary weight loss: a simple score

BACKGROUND: Involuntary weight loss (IWL) is a frequent complaint with a difficult diagnosis. Any one of a number of different diseases may be the source of the symptom. However, there is no universal clinical protocol that can help physicians study this complex syndrome. METHODS: In March 1998, we defined a diagnostic protocol for the study of IWL. IWL was defined as an involuntary and documented weight loss of at least 5% of the usual body weight in the previous 3 months. We analyzed 78 consecutive patients with IWL who came to our clinic between March 1998 and December 2000. RESULTS: An organic disease was found in 56% of cases; cancer, metabolic and digestive diseases were the most common entities. Psychiatric problems were found in 33% of cases. After extensive study, an idiopathic group of 11% was identified. The variables that were independently predictive of a final diagnosis of organic disease were: age>50 years (OR: 8.6, CI 95%: 1.7-43.6), psychiatric symptoms (OR: 0.2, CI 95%: 0.1-0.8), smoking (OR: 14.3, CI 95% 2.3-74), the presence of guide symptoms (OR: 8.0, CI 95%: 1.8-34.4), and anemia (OR: 3.1, CI 95%: 2.5-387). Sixteen percent of the patients died, more often those suffering from organic diseases. Based on multivariate regression coefficients, a clinical risk score was established. CONCLUSIONS: IWL is a complex and frequent syndrome with a 16% rate of mortality during the first year. A protocol based on clinical data can help in the management of IWL. Our clinical prediction rule may help physicians to identify those patients with IWL who are likely to have an underlying organic disease.     

Parvovirus B19 thrombocytopenic purpura complicated with a cerebral hemorrhage]

Severe hemorrhage complications are rare in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. This pathology is often considered as benign. CASE REPORT: We report the case of a four-year-old boy presenting a parvovirus B19 idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Despite early and repeated use of intravenous immunoglobulin, the evolution was characterized by the secondary apparition of a cerebral hemorrhage. It was lethal seven days after the initial diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Parvovirus B19 should be investigated as an etiologic agent of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, using PCR. The unpredictive aspect of severe hemorrhage complications, especially cerebral hemorrhages, explains the potential severity of this disease.     

Confabulation in a patient with fronto-temporal dementia and a patient with Alzheimer's disease

This paper describes two patients, O.I. and B.Y., with a confabulatory syndrome. O.I. was diagnosed with probable fronto-temporal dementia, whereas B.Y. met the criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease. O.I., but not B.Y., was impaired on tests of frontal/executive functions, and performed better than B.Y. on clinical tests of memory. Both patients confabulated in episodic/autobiographical memory tasks and in personal future planning tasks. B.Y. confabulated also in a semantic memory task. It is argued that the pattern of confabulation and the cognitive profile shown by the two patients is explained better by the hypothesis proposed by Dalla Barba and co-workers (Dalla Barba et al., 1997b) than by current theories of confabulation.     

A comparative study of HER2/neu amplification and overexpression using fluorescencein situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in 101 breast cancer patients

The HER2/neu protooncogene is expressed in the breast, ovarian, gastric and prostatic tumors. Studies done in a number of laboratories have demostrated that 25%–30% of breast cancer contain overexpression of HER2/neu gene. A comparative analysis of the amplification and overexpression of HER2/neu using fluorescencein situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to determine the correlation between both techniques. In this study, FISH with HER2/neu probe (Path Vysion) is compared to immunohistochemistry (rabbit anti-human c-erbB-2-DAKO) in a series of 101 prospective human breast cancer specimens. Among 25 patients with score of IHC 3+, 23 (92%) were detected amplified by FISH and in two cases we found overexpression (3+) but without gene amplification. Out of 46 cases with 2+ by IHC, we found 43 not amplified, two moderately amplified (<10 copies) and one highly amplified (>10 copies) (6.5%). No patient with IHC O or 1+, presented amplification of HER2/neu. A good correlation between both techniques was found. FISH technique should have clinical utillity overoat in cases with 2+.