Effect of phosphorylation in vitro of human fibrinogen with protein kinase C on thrombin-induced gelation

Thrombin-induced gel formation of fibrinogen phosphorylated by protein kinase C yielded a transparent gel, whereas unphosphorylated fibrinogen yielded a coarse gel. The mass-length ratio was found to be one order of magnitude higher for the unphosphorylated than for the phosphorylated fibrinogen. Since the phosphorylated sites are located near the cross-linking sites in the A alpha-chain of fibrinogen, it is likely that the introduction of charged phosphate groups in this region prevent the lateral growth of the fibrin fibres.     

Lung cell reactions in guinea pigs after inhalation of asbestos (amosite)

To study the long-term effect of inhaled asbestos, guinea-pigs were exposed to airborne amosite at a concentration of 49 mg/m3, 2 h/day for 3 or 6 weeks and examined up to 2 years after exposure. Macrophages in lung lavage fluid (LLF) were increased at 16, 24 and 93 weeks and lymphocytes at 24 weeks. Examination of lung wall cells (LWC) 2 years after exposure compared to cells obtained by LLF showed higher proportions of LWC lymphocytes and neutrophils. Percoll gradient centrifugation of these cells showed a higher proportion of high density macrophages in LLF from the amosite-exposed animal and an increased number of low density lymphocytes in the LW. Cathepsin D was increased in LLF at 8 and 24 weeks and in alveolar macrophages 24 weeks and 2 years after exposure. Fibroblast cultures exposed to LLF did not show any statistical significant changes in their collagen synthesis. Histology 93 weeks after exposure showed macrophage and mediastinal lymph node accumulation of asbestos, as well as collagen in alveolar walls. Granulomas were found in the vicinity of blood vessels and in connection with the bronchioles. The data suggest that amosite at low doses ultimately causes fibrosis with a reaction pattern different from that seen in silicosis. The inflammation and fibrosis seems to develop only within the interstitium.     

Nationales Reanimationsregister

Within the scope of the symposium “Rescue Medicine in Germany” (held at the Reisensburg near Ulm in 2002), the need for a standardized data acquisition set for prehospital cardiac arrest patients was identified. Therefore, the working group “Emergency Medicine” of the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI) created a nationwide data acquisition system for primary medical care in prehospital cardiac arrest patients treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedures. The system is in full accordance with the “Utstein style.” Integration of this data acquisition system, for example into the “Dortmund protocol,” is providing a standardized data web base of all acquired prehospital data analyze and to compare processing and structural quality. As additional modules for this nationwide data web base system, an inhospital module “further clinical treatment” and a “long-term follow-up” module are currently in the developmental process.     

Computerised and technical navigation in total knee-arthroplasty

Abstract The objective of the study was to evaluate the precision, concordance, practicability and the early clinical outcome of the use of a computerised navigation system in a comparative study with a group of 100 patients. Two groups of 50 patients each underwent implantation of a bicondylar knee prosthesis either by means of the freehand navigation system or by means of technical instrumentation. We found that the computerised navigation system provided a higher precision than the technically instrumented implantation: 94% of the prostheses implanted with the navigation system have an alignment within a range of -3° to 3° on of the Mikulicz line. Only 46% of the patients operated by means of the technical instrumentation reached this aspired result. Furthermore, the navigation system showed smaller ranges in the deviation of the aspired alignment. The radiological and computer-modeled alignment values differed both pre- and postoperatively, but to a larger extent before surgery. The varus or valgus deviations of the axis were more distinct radiologically under the weight of the patient’s body than in the computer model. The clinical outcome examined by the use of the HSS score after a mean followup of 7 months is good in both groups, and without significant differences. On average, the duration of surgery was 13 minutes longer in the computerised navigation group. We conclude that the benefit of the computerised navigation system is represented by the high improvement of precision. Achieving early clinical results identical to those in the technical instrumentation group, we expect a reduction of aseptic loosening in the computerised navigation group.     

Serum levels of specific glucuronidated androgen metabolites predict BMD and prostate volume in elderly men.

Androgens are important regulators of bone and prostate health in elderly men. The role of serum levels of glucuronidated androgen metabolites as predictors of BMD and prostate volume in men is unclear. We show that specific glucuronidated androgen metabolites predict BMD and prostate volume in elderly men. INTRODUCTION: Androgens are important regulators of bone and prostate health in elderly men. Local synthesis and degradation of androgens are likely to be important parameters of biological action of androgens in androgen-responsive tissues. The aim of this study was to determine the role of serum levels of glucuronidated androgen metabolites as predictors of BMD and prostate volume in elderly men. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A subsample of the population-based Swedish part of the MrOS study (n = 631, average age = 75.9 years) was investigated. Bone parameters were measured using DXA. Serum levels of total testosterone (T) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) were measured by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS); androstane-3alpha,17beta-diol-3glucuronide (3G) and androstane-3alpha,17beta-diol-17glucuronide (17G) were measured by liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy. Prostate volume (n = 159) was measured by transrectal ultrasound. RESULTS: The general pattern is that two of the glucuronidated androgen metabolites, namely 17G and 3G, are stronger positive predictors of BMD than the bioactive androgens (T and DHT). In addition, 17G is a clear positive predictor of prostate volume, explaining 4.5% of the variance in prostate volume, whereas the bioactive androgens do not display any association with prostate volume. CONCLUSIONS: Serum levels of specific glucuronidated androgen metabolites predict BMD and prostate volume in elderly men. Future studies should determine if the glucuronidated androgen metabolites also reflect other biological correlates of androgenic activity, including prostate cancer, and if low levels might be a marker of general androgen deficiency in men.     

Satisfaction with Team Midwifery Care for Low‐ and High‐Risk Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT:Background: In 1996 a new model of maternity care characterized by continuity of midwifery care from early pregnancy through the postpartum period was implemented for women attending Monash Medical Centre, a tertiary level obstetric service, in Melbourne, Australia. This study's purpose was to assess the impact of this model on women's views and experiences of care during the antenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods compared with views of women receiving standard maternity care. Methods: One thousand low‐ and high‐risk women who booked at the antenatal clinic and met the eligibility criteria were randomly allocated to continuity of midwifery care from a group of seven midwives in collaboration with medical staff, or to standard care from a variety of midwives and medical staff. Women's views of care were measured by means of a postal questionnaire at four months after the birth. Results: Team midwifery care was associated with increased satisfaction with antenatal, intrapartum, and some aspects of postpartum care. The differences were most obvious for antenatal care. Conclusions: Continuity of midwifery care is realistically achievable in a tertiary obstetric referral service and is associated with increased satisfaction. (BIRTH 30:1 March 2003)     

Women's Memory of Childbirth at Two Months and One Year after the Birth

Abstract: Background: Studies of women's memory of labor and birth have generally concluded that women's recall is fairly accurate, but the findings are not unanimous. The aim of this study was to compare women's experiences of labor pain and overall experience of the birth at 2 months and 1 year after the delivery. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study of 2,428 women recruited in early pregnancy from all antenatal clinics in Sweden during 3 weeks evenly spread during 1999–2000 was conducted. In addition to a questionnaire in early pregnancy including background data, the women completed a questionnaire at 2 months and 1 year after the birth including the same 7‐point rating scale of pain intensity and the same question about overall experience of labor and birth. Results: Forty‐seven percent of the women made the same assessment of pain intensity, and 60 percent of childbirth overall, at 1 year as they did at 2 months after the birth. One year after the birth, 35 percent recalled pain as less severe, and 18 percent as more severe, and 24 percent said labor and birth overall was more negative, whereas 16 percent said it was more positive. Conclusion: This study showed great variation in women's memories of labor and birth, and conclusions by some other studies, often based on analyses of group data rather than on the responses of the individual participants were, to some extent, challenged. (BIRTH 30:4 December 2003)     

Prefrontal cortex dysfunction and depression in atypical parkinsonian syndromes.

Depressive symptoms are common in patients with neurodegenerative disorders. Imaging studies suggest that a disruption of frontal-subcortical pathways may underlie depression associated with basal ganglia disease. This pilot study tested the hypothesis that frontal dysfunction contributes to depression associated with multiple system atrophy (MSA) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Depressed patients with MSA (n = 11), PSP (n = 9), and age-matched controls (n = 25) underwent measures of cerebral glucose metabolism applying positron emission tomography with (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose. Regional metabolism in the patient groups was compared to the normal subjects using the voxel-based statistical parametric mapping. Depressive symptom severity (Hamilton Depression Rating) and degree of locomotor disability (Hoehn & Yahr) were assessed in the patient groups. The association between prefrontal metabolism and the occurrence of depressive symptoms and the degree of locomotor disability was investigated. When compared to controls, MSA patients revealed significant metabolic decreases in bilateral frontal, parietal, and cerebellar cortex and in the left putamen. In PSP patients, significant hypometabolism was demonstrated in bilateral frontal cortex, right thalamus, and midbrain. Depression severity but not the patients' functional condition was significantly associated with dorsolateral prefrontal glucose metabolism in both patient groups. The findings of this pilot study support the hypothesis that depressive symptoms in MSA and PSP are associated with prefrontal dysfunction.     

Real-time refinement of subthalamic nucleus targeting using Bayesian decision-making on the root mean square measure.

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a major target for treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. Microelectrode recording (MER) is used in many cases to identify the target nucleus. A real-time procedure for identifying the entry and exit points of the STN would improve the outcome of this targeting procedure. We used the normalized root mean square (NRMS) of a short (5 seconds) MER sampled signal and the estimated anatomical distance to target (EDT) as the basis for this procedure. Electrode tip location was defined intraoperatively by an expert neurophysiologist to be before, within, or after the STN. Data from 46 trajectories of 27 patients were used to calculate the Bayesian posterior probability of being in each of these locations, given RMS-EDT pair values. We tested our predictions on each trajectory using a bootstrapping technique, with the rest of the trajectories serving as a training set and found the error in predicting the STN entry to be (mean +/- SD) 0.18 +/- 0.84, and 0.50 +/- 0.59 mm for STN exit point, which yields a 0.30 +/- 0.28 mm deviation from the expert's target center. The simplicity and computational ease of RMS calculation, its spike sorting-independent nature and tolerance to electrode parameters of this Bayesian predictor, can lead directly to the development of a fully automated intraoperative physiological procedure for the refinement of imaging estimates of STN borders.