Parental occupation and neural tube defect-affected pregnancies among Mexican Americans

In a case-control study, we examined whether parental occupational exposures were related to neural tube defect (NTD)-affected pregnancies among Mexican Americans living along the Texas-Mexico border. Case women were 184 Mexican-American women with NTD-affected pregnancies; control women were 225 study-area residents who delivered normal babies during the same period as the case women. The women were interviewed in person about maternal and paternal occupations and work exposures during the periconceptional period. Compared with control women, case women were more likely to have had occupational exposures to solvents (odds ratio [OR], infinity; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4-infinity) and also were more likely to have worked in cleaning (OR 9.5; 95% CI, 1.1 to 82.2) or health care occupations (OR 3.0; 95% CI, 1.0 to 9.0) than control women. No compelling associations were found between paternal work exposures or occupations and NTDs in offspring in this population.     

Surfactant wound irrigation for the treatment of staphylococcal clinical isolates

Deep wound infection involving an implanted biomaterial is a devastating complication in orthopaedic surgery. Two-thirds of such infections are monomicrobial and the most commonly isolated bacteria in human osteomyelitis and orthopaedic device infection are Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of the previously reported sequential surfactant irrigation protocol against human-isolated clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis in the rat model of orthopaedic implant contamination. The infectivity rate of human-isolated clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus in a contaminated complex orthopaedic wound was reduced effectively by a sequential surfactant irrigation protocol. Also, in this model, the infectivity of Staphylococcus epidermidis was reduced by normal saline irrigation alone when compared with no irrigation. Therefore, the sequential surfactant irrigation protocol may represent an effective method of wound irrigation in monomicrobial Staphylococcus aureus orthopaedic implant contamination, and normal saline irrigation may suffice in cases of monomicrobial Staphylococcus epidermidis contamination. Additional studies are necessary to determine the clinical use of surfactant irrigation.     

Multiple myeloma associated with lactic acidosis

Type B lactic acidosis is rare among patients with malignant diseases. To date only one case report has documented lactic acidosis occurring in a patient with multiple myeloma (MM). Our patient, a 55-year-old black man, was diagnosed with stage IIIA immunoglobulin G-kappa (IgG-kappa) MM in September 1995. He was found to have severe lactic acidosis at the time of second relapse. During the terminal phase of his disease, he required multiple hospitalizations for management of lactic acidosis and other complications of his MM. No other cause of his elevated lactate levels was identified. Although type B lactic acidosis may more commonly occur in patients with leukemia or lymphoma, it may rarely present in patients with rapidly progressive and refractory MM.     

贴报-P2临床毒理学、药理学和疗效研究

5-Flourouracil（5-FU） is one of well known anti-cancer drugs, but its toxicity in normal lymphocytes remains a major problem in chemotherapy. The eastern traditional drug, Bupleuri radix（BR）, has been used for the treatment of liver diseases and contains series of triterpene saponins.     

子宫肌瘤与性激素及细胞凋亡的关系

1对象和方法 1.1对象随机抽取2001-10/2002-09我科住院行子宫全切术的34例子宫肌瘤患者,其中卵泡期18例,黄体期16例,年龄35~45岁. 术后均经病理证实,在手术前3 mo均未接受过激素治疗,肌瘤大小为3~8 cm3. 自肌瘤瘤体及瘤旁肌层组织各取材1份作配对比较. 瘤体为实验组,肌层为对照组. 鼠抗人ER, PR, PRL-R, Bcl-2 mAb及链霉菌抗生物素蛋白-过氧化物酶(SP)免疫组化试剂盒,均购自福州迈新生物技术开发公司.     

Chemoprevention of spontaneous tumorigenesis in nullizygous p53- deficient mice by dehydroepiandrosterone and its analog 16alpha-fluoro- 5-androsten-17-one

Transgenic mice with both alleles of the p53 tumor suppressor gene product 'knocked out' by gene targeting are susceptible to early development of tumors, chiefly lymphomas and sarcomas. Compared with the control group, administration of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) at 0.3% of the diet to male p53-deficient mice extended their lifespan by delaying death due to neoplasms (from 105 to 166 days on study, P = 0.002), primarily by suppressing lymphoblastic lymphoma (from 45 to 6% of neoplastic deaths, P = 0.010). Treatment with a synthetic DHEA analog, 16alpha-fluoro-5-androsten-17-one (compound 8354), at 0.15% of the diet also increased lifespan, to 140 days for mice that developed tumors (P = 0.037). The effects of these steroids on lifespan and tumor development did not appear to be strongly related to inhibition of food consumption and weight gain, in that a group pair-fed with control diet to the reduced food consumption of the DHEA-treated group developed and died of the same types of neoplasms at the same rate as the controls fed ad libitum. The chemopreventive effect of these steroids has been proposed to be due to suppression of DNA synthesis by inhibition of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, the rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway. Although DHEA and its analog are strong non- competitive inhibitors of this enzyme in vitro, treatment with DHEA did not deplete cellular nucleotide pools in the liver, as would have been predicted. The chemopreventive effect of DHEA in this model may be due to steroid-induced thymic atrophy and suppression of T cell lymphoma, permitting these mice to survive long enough to develop tumors with longer latency.