Treatment of experimentally induced atherosclerosis in swine iliac arteries: A comparison of self-expanding and balloon-expanded stents

Atherosclerosis was induced in 20 Hanford miniature swine. Subsequently, one iliac artery lesion in each of 16 pigs was stented with either a self-expanding (8 pigs) or a balloon-expanded (8 pigs) stent. Immediately after stent placement, 4 animals in each group were taken off the atherogenic diet and continued on normal chow for the remainder of the study. Four months after stents were placed, atherosclerosis and the mural changes associated with the stent were more clearly evident in the arteries of the pigs continued on the atherogenic diet. These pigs also exhibited significantly more neointimal proliferation. In addition, the arteries containing the balloon-expanded stents showed more extensive and complex intimal changes when compared with arteries with self-expanding stents. Although both stent designs were equally effective in maintaining vascular patency, the balloon-expanded stent was more traumatic to the vessel wall which resulted in a significantly greater neointimal thickness.     

Leukocyte chemoattraction by 1,2-diacylglycerol.

Previous reports have demonstrated the hydrolysis of inositol phospholipids in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) in response to chemoattractants and in lymphocytes in response to the mitogen phytohemagglutinin. We investigated the role of 1,2-diacylglycerol, one of the products of receptor-linked phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis, in mediating the migratory response of leukocytes. In an under-agarose migration system, we found 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol to be a strong chemoattractant for human PMN, 6C3HED (a mouse thymic lymphoma), and Jurkat (a human T-cell leukemia). By using a modified Boyden chamber assay, the migratory response of PMN to 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol was determined to be primarily chemotactic. Analysis of structural analogs indicated that both the position and number of acyl chains are important in determining chemoattractant activity. These studies demonstrate that exogenous 1,2-diacylglycerol can stimulate the directed migration of leukocytes. They further suggest that the formation of 1,2-diacylglycerol following receptor-mediated stimulation may represent a common step in the migratory responses of myeloid and lymphoid cells.     

Reliability of radiographic measurement of fracture angulation in children with femoral shaft fractures

INTRODUCTION: Clinical decisions are based on x-ray measures of radiographs. However, the reliability of assessing the angular measurement of fractured femurs in children is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the intra- and interrater reliability of an x-ray assessment of femoral shaft fracture angulation in children. METHODS: On 2 occasions, 3 raters evaluated 30 radiographs of children aged 4 to 10 years, 3 to 24 months after a femoral fracture. The radiographs were evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon, an orthopedic fellow and a research assistant, using a standardized methodology. Reliability was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), an index of concordance that ranges from 01, where > 0.75 indicates excellent concordance. RESULTS: The ICC for the intrarater ranged from 0.75 to 0.97. The interrater reliability ICC for anterior or posterior angulation was 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.840.95) and for varus or valgus angulation was 0.90 (95% CI 0.790.95). A change in measurement of more than 5 degrees exceeds the variation in measurement and, therefore, can be attributed to a true shift in fracture position. CONCLUSIONS: With specific standardized protocols, radiographic assessment of femoral fractures is reliable, irrespective of the examiner's level of experience.     

Social disability in different mental disorders.

ObjectiveTo assess the social disability of people with different psychiatric disorders.MethodsCross-site survey in five psychiatric hospitals (Dresden, Wrocław, London, Michalovce and Prague). Working-aged patients diagnosed (ICD-10) with schizophrenia and related disorders (F2), affective disorders (F3), anxiety disorders (F4), eating disorders (F5) and personality disorders (F6), were assessed at admission (n = 969) and 3 months after discharge (n = 753) using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Groningen Social Disability Schedule. The main outcome measure was Interviewer-rated social disability.ResultsDuring acute episodes patients with personality, eating and schizophrenic disorders functioned less effectively than those with affective or anxiety disorders. After controlling for age and severity of psychopathology, there was no significant effect of the diagnosis (during remission), sex, education and history of disorder on disability. Site, employment and partnership were significant factors for the level of social disability in both measure points.ConclusionSeverity of psychopathological symptoms, not the diagnosis of a mental disorder, was the most significant factor in determining the level of social functioning, particularly during the remission period. Site, employment and partnership appeared as significant factors influencing the level of social disability.     

The effect of simulator training on clinical skills acquisition, retention and transfer

Context  Prior research has demonstrated that residents have poor clinical skills in cardiology and respirology. It is not clear how these skills can be improved because the number of patients with suitable clinical findings whose cooperation might help residents to better develop these clinical skills is limited.
Objectives  Our objective was to evaluate the effect of training on a cardiorespiratory simulator (CRS) on skills acquisition, retention and transfer.
Methods  We randomly allocated 146 students to CRS training in either chest pain or dyspnoea and compared each student's performance on the clinical presentation in which he or she had received CRS training with performance on the control presentation.
Results  Immediately after training, students were more accurate in identifying abnormal clinical findings on the CRS (70.0% versus 52.2%; d = 7.6, P  < 0.0001) and showed improved diagnostic performance (72.1% versus 55.6%; d = 4.3, P  = 0.0007) on the training clinical presentation. At the end of the course they were still better at identifying abnormal findings (57.1% versus 51.7%; d = 2.5, P  = 0.004) and diagnosing correctly (50.0% versus 38.1%; d = 3.0, P  = 0.002) on problems included in the training clinical presentation. However, they showed no difference between training and control presentations in diagnostic performance when required to transfer their skills between problems (45.9% versus 43.8%; P  = 0.5) or in performance on multiple-choice questions (64.1% versus 63.6%; P  = 0.8).
Conclusions  Students can acquire and retain clinical skills with CRS training, but demonstrate limited ability to transfer these to other problems. Further studies are needed to explore ways of improving learning and transfer with CRS training.     

Treatment of parainfluenza virus 3 pneumonia in a cardiac transplant recipient with intravenous ribavirin and methylprednisolone.

A 59-year-old man developed a lower respiratory tract infection 10 years after orthotopic cardiac transplantation. He did not respond to broad-spectrum antibiotic and antifungal treatment. Parainfluenza virus type 3 was the causative organism, and he was successfully treated with intravenous ribavirin and methylprednisolone.     

Validation of analytical parameters of a competitive direct ELISA for aflatoxin B1 in peanuts

Analytical validation of a competitive direct SUNQuik ELISA with a reference High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method and other methods including a minicolumn method and the VICAM Aflatest® system for aflatoxin in peanuts was conducted. Both the ELISA and the VICAM Aflatest® system, using the same peanut extracts were analytically comparable with the HPLC method (R=0.998, p<0.000). The minicolumn method was also found to be acceptable as a low cost rapid semi-quantitative test. Despite the large variation in sampling, the correlation between the SUNQuik ELISA and HPLC using the different peanut sub-samples was considered acceptable over the range of 0–1200 µg kg^?1 (R=0.938). No false negatives were found using the SUNQuik ELISA and false positives were either nil or negligible in all the studies conducted. The repeatability of the SUNQuik ELISA run on the same day was good with only±10% deviation. The reproducibility of the SUNQuik ELISA between days was also acceptable, but with a higher deviation. Applying the SUNQuik ELISA for aflatoxin surveys of peanuts in Indonesia proved that the method can deliver high quality, cost- and time-effective analysis with very little establishment capital and maintenance.