A guinea pig model for Lyme disease.

We report that outbred Hartley guinea pigs are susceptible to Borrelia burgdorferi. We recovered spirochetes from 57 of 60 (95%) guinea pigs inoculated when < or = 3 months of age. In contrast, animals inoculated when > or = 6 months of age were resistant to infection as defined by recovery of organisms at > or = 4 weeks postinoculation. Infection was widely disseminated: B. burgdorferi was recovered from 83% of bladders, 64% of knee joints, 57% of hearts, 48% of spleens, and 38% of spinal cords examined within 4 weeks of inoculation. Histopathologic changes were common in the heart (88%) (preferential involvement of perineural tissues near the annulus fibrosus) and bladder (76%) and were also noted in a minority of spinal cords (13%) and knee joints (9%). Western immunoblots demonstrated an immunoglobulin G response to B. burgdorferi, particularly to the 24-, 31- (OspA), 39-, and 41-kDa (flagellin) antigens. Infection was cleared from most tissues with the passage of time; spirochetes were recovered from 63% of tissues removed from guinea pigs at < or = 4 weeks after inoculation but from only 32% at > or = 8 weeks postinoculation (P < 0.001). An exception was the failure to clear spirochetes from infected knees, 90% of which were culture positive even when evaluated at > or = 8 weeks postinoculation. The guinea pig provides a new model useful for studying host-spirochete interactions in Lyme disease.     

Comprehensive Quality Programming and Accountability: Eight Essential Strategies for Implementing Successful Prevention Programs

This article presents strategies that can be used to improve the state of the practice of prevention programs. Although these strategies have broad application to all forms of prevention and intervention programs, this article focuses on the application of such strategies to youth and family prevention programs. If positive changes in the lives of the youth and families in our communities are to be realized, it is imperative that effective and quality prevention programs reach these populations. We present a series of eight specific strategies, collectively referred to as Comprehensive Quality Programming (CQP), and an overview of an effective method for using such strategies to continuously improve programs. The use of CQP will be illustrated with three examples, including an evaluation of a school-based mentoring program.     

Blood flow in the oral mucosa of normal and atherosclerotic rhesus monkeys

Little data is available on regional blood flow in the normal primate oral mucosa and none on that in atherosclerotic animals. Three adult Rhesus monkeys were maintained on a normal diet and 4 on a high fat, high cholesterol diet for 20 months. Radiolabelled microspheres were used to measure blood flow in skin and 16 oral mucosa regions. In normal animals, blood flow ranged from 160.81 to 8.68 ml/min/100 gm tissue. Blood flow in the same regions of atherosclerotic animals showed significantly lower values than in controls, ranging from 65.90 to 1.04 ml/min/100 gms tissue. However, the relative blood flow to the different regions was not significantly different between control and atherosclerotic animals. Histologic examination of tissue from the atherosclerotic animals revealed gross intimal plaques occluding the lumina of the carotids and atherosclerotic lesions in the lingual arteries. It is concluded that the decrease in blood flow in oral mucosa in the atherosclerotic animals is not the result of local changes in the mucosal vasculature but may be related to lesions seen in the major afferent vessels.     

MR imaging of a lymphangioma involving the masseter muscle

Lymphangiomas and cystic hygromas are tumors of lymphatic origin that are relatively common in the head and neck area. However, based on our literature review of this subject, the masseter muscle has never been implicated as a primary tumor site. It is our purpose to report such a case and to emphasize the value of magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosing a mass located in the masseteric region.     

Heterozygous cystinuria and calcium oxalate urolithiasis.

Many variables are known to be associated with the formation of calcium oxalate urolithiasis but none is essential for the initiation or growth of stones. It is likely that the predisposition to stone formation is related to multiple factors. We herein describe still another metabolic state that seems to predispose to calcium oxalate stone disease, namely heterozygosity for cystinuria. Cystine screening tests were done on 24-hour urine specimens obtained from 126 patients in whom recurrent calcium oxalate stones form and 84 controls and quantitative amino acid determinations were done on all positive specimens. Of those studied 17 of 126 stone patients and 1 of 84 controls were heterozygous cystinurics. A test of the differences between the relative frequencies of cystinuria heterozygotes in the 2 groups with Fisher's exact test revealed them to be highly significant (p less than 0.001). Our study indicates that carrier status for 1 of the cystinuria genes predisposes to calcium oxalate stone formation but, like other factors related to urolithiasis, it is not a necessary cause of stone disease.     

Effects of two nonsulfhydryl angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, CGS 14831 and CGS 16617, on myocardial damage and left-ventricular hypertrophy following coronary artery occlusion in the rat

The present study was designed to examine the effects of two new angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, CGS 14831 and CGS 16617 (3 mg/kg i. v. 1 min prior to occlusion and 4 and 24 h after occlusion), on myocardial ischemic (MI) damage and left-ventricular hypertrophy in rats. Administration of CGS 14831 or CGS 16617 inhibited angio-tensin-I-induced pressor responses by 40-100% for 4 h after each dose. Myocardial creatine phosphokinase (CK) levels were 10.6 +/- 0.6 U/mg protein in sham-MI animals, and following coronary artery occlusion for 48 h were decreased to 4.1 +/- 0.2 U/mg protein in MI + vehicle animals (p less than 0.01). CGS 14831 and CGS 16617 attenuated the decrease in CK content and resulted in 47 and 40% sparing, respectively, of the left-ventricular free wall. Neither agent attenuated the left-ventricular hypertrophy which developed following coronary artery occlusion. These data indicate that the nonsulfhydryl ACE inhibitors CGS 14831 and CGS 16617 have a significant cardioprotective effect in rats surviving 48 h, and suggest a potential therapeutic usefulness of these agents for the treatment of ischemia-induced heart failure.