Mid-p confidence intervals for the poisson expectation

Conventionally a confidence interval (CI) for the standardized mortality ratio is set using the conservative CI for a Poisson expectation, μ. Employing the mid-P argument we present alternative CIs that are shorter than the conventional ones. The mid-P intervals do not guarantee the nominal confidence level, but the true coverage probability is only lower than the nominal level for a few short ranges of μ. The implications for mid-P confidence intervals of various proposed definitions of two-sided tests for discrete data are discussed.     

Application of enzyme linked immuno-electrophoresis for the diagnosis of tuberculosis]

The technique of Enzyme linked immuno-electrophoresis (ELIEP) was established to detect the specific antibody against tubercle bacilli. The results of 730 cases showed that the sensitivity of this method is 97.33%, and the specificity, 97.5%. Thus this method is more sensitive than the ELISA methods which had bean published. The manipulation of ELIEP is simple, convenient, and fast, reagent stable. This method may be used in diagnosis of tuberculosis with reliability and efficiency.     

Immunoscintigraphy in the detection of tuberculosis with radiolabelled antibody fragment against Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin: a preliminary study in a rabbit model.

Immunoscintigraphy with radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies is widely used to detect solid tumours, but only a few trials have been carried out concerning the specific in vivo localization of an inflammatory process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the detectability of tuberculous foci utilizing this method with radiolabelled bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-specific F(ab')2 in rabbits. All of the tuberculous lesions (n = 8) were clearly visualized on serial scintigraphy for up to 48 h after injection of the antibody. Immunohistochemical and Ziel-Neelson staining of the tuberculous lesions confirmed the presence of the tuberculous antigens and bacilli. It failed to demonstrate any sustained retention of the BCG-specific antibody fragment in the control group with syphilitic orchitis (n = 2). Therefore, the specific in vivo localization of tuberculosis is feasible by immunoscintigraphy.     

Differential sodium fluoride sensitivity of alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase in human, bovine, canine, and murine monocytes and lymphocytes.

The sensitivity of alpha-naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) activity of human, bovine, canine, and murine leukocytes to low (42 micrograms/ml incubation mixture) and high (1.5 mg/ml incubation mixture) concentrations of sodium fluoride (NaF) was compared. The ANAE activity of bovine and canine monocytes was only slightly inhibited by the low concentration of NaF, whereas that of murine peritoneal macrophages was moderately inhibited and that of human monocytes was completely inhibited. Human and canine monocytic ANAE was completely inhibited by the high concentration of NaF, whereas the ANAE activity in 1% of bovine monocytes and murine peritoneal macrophages was not inhibited. The ANAE activity of human and murine lymphocytes in nonenriched venous blood samples showed no or negligible NaF sensitivity to the low concentration of NaF, whereas bovine lymphocytic ANAE showed slight and canine lymphocytic ANAE moderate NaF sensitivity. The ANAE of murine T-lymphoma L5178Y cells was resistant to the low concentration of NaF, but the ANAE of both murine T-lymphoma L5178Y cells and murine lymphocytes was completely inhibited by the high concentration of NaF. Human, bovine, and canine lymphocytic ANAE showed marked NaF sensitivity toward the high concentration of NaF, showing 73%, 86%, and 93% inhibition, respectively. The neutrophils in murine venous blood and ascites were positive for ANAE activity, which was only slightly inhibited by the low concentration of NaF but completely inhibited by the high concentration. Results of this investigation demonstrate that the ANAE of leukocytes of various species show remarkable differences in its sensitivity to low and high concentrations of NaF, indicating that appropriate concentrations of NaF are required for distinguishing the ANAE of lymphocytes and monocytes of different species.     

Autoantibodies to Serum Proteins in Women with Recurrent Spontaneous Abortion: Subsequent Pregnancy Outcome

Sera from 130 first trimester pregnant women were tested for their serum antibody level against a naturally occurring serum antigen purified from non-pregnancy sera. IgG and IgM antibody level was measured using enzyme linked immunosorbant assay. Results indicate that patients with multiple abortion (n=26) have significantly (p=0.0029) lower level of IgG antibody and significantly (p=0.0001) higher level of IgM antibodies; against the serum antigen as compared to the patients with successful pregnancies with no history of miscarriage (n=63). Western blot analysis identified the scrum antigen recognized by the IgM antibody as a 24 kDa molecular mass component. These IgG and IgM antibodies may play an important role in the outcome of pregnancy.     

Neural network models for the gaze shift system in the superior colliculus and cerebellum.

We investigate the role that the superior colliculus (SC) and the cerebellum might play in generating gaze shifts. The discharge of cells in the intermediate layers of the SC is tightly linked to the occurrence of saccades. Many studies have demonstrated that the cerebellum is involved in both eye and head movements. When the head is unrestrained, large amplitude gaze shifts are composed of coordinated eye and head movements. In this study, we propose that the gaze saccades system is controlled by a feedback loop between the SC and the cerebellum. The SC only encodes retinal coordinates and controls the eye displacement (to move the fovea to the target), while the cerebellum deals with the gaze programming and controls the head displacement. When a target appears in space, the buildup cells within the SC decode the target signal in the retina before the saccade onset, and input the signal of the gaze displacement to the cerebellum. The cells in the cerebellum vermis encode the initial position of the eye in the orbit. The gaze displacement is decomposed into the head amplitude and the eye amplitude within the cerebellum. There are two output signals from the cerebellum. One signal controls the head movement. The other is projected back to the SC, and forms a component of the saccade vector to control the eye movement. The sum of the vectors provided by the cerebellum and the vector provided by the burst cells in the SC indicates the direction and the amplitude of the desired movement of the eye during the saccade. We propose a cerebellum model to predict the displacements of the eye and head under the condition that the position of the target signal in the retina and the initial position of the eye in the orbit are known. The results from the model are close to that observed physiologically. We conclude that before gaze shift onset, the cerebellum may play an important role in decomposing the gaze displacement into an eye amplitude and head amplitude signal.     

Takayasu's arteritis and mitral stenosis

A 44-year-old housewife was found to have coarctation of the abdominal aorta secondary to Takayasu's arteritis. Since she also had mitral stenosis, possible etiological relation between Takayasu's arteritis and mitral stenosis is suspected.     

Pharmacological action of Adenophora polysaccharides

Adenophora polysaccharides (AP), is an active principle extracted from the root of Adenophorae Potaninii Korsh originated in Gansu Province and isolated with boiling water(1). AP is isolated and purified from the crude drug by DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-200 column, with a white powder and mean molecular weight of 8.3 × 104 , and [α]D20of AP is 68(1). AP is only composed of glucose judging from the analysis of it with patina chromatography (PC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) methods.The methylation analysis showed that AP is composed of (1→6) linked glucose residues. The measure of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR) 1H NMR and 14C NMR techniques further proved that AP is α(l→6) linked by Dglucose. The structure of AP is as follows: -[→6]α-D-Glu(1-)n→ (2).     

Transvaginal sonography in the morphological and functional assessment of segmental dilation of the distal ureter.

Primary megaureter presents a spectrum of findings ranging from mild, clinically unimportant, stable ureterectasis to severe, progressive obstructive hydroureteronephrosis. We report a patient with a double uterus and ipsilateral renal dystrophy. A previous imaging study had revealed a double uterus and obstructed left hemivagina, into which a single vaginal ectopic ureter inserted. On follow-up intravenous urography 8 years later, the left kidney was non-functioning, and there was segmental dilation of the distal right ureter. Transvaginal sonography with real-time scanning and Doppler were useful in exploring the morphological and functional status of this dilated distal ureter.