Effect of granulocyte colony stimulating factor treatment on ex vivo cytokine production by blood cells of patients after chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

We explored ex vivo alterations in the cytokine release of stimulated blood cells taken from 8 patients with hematological malignancies who, after chemotherapy or radiotherapy developed leukopenia, and were treated for 3-7 days subcutaneously with granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), daily, dose of 5 microg/kg of body weight. Blood was also taken from 8 healthy controls not treated with G-CSF and from patients before and 24 h after last dose of G-CSF and ex vivo treated with interferon (IFN) inducers: Newcastle disease virus (NDV), phytohemagglutinin (PHA), concanavalin A (Con A) and with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inducer--lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Blood cells of patients before G-CSF treatment exhibited ex vivo a low ability to produce IFN-gamma in comparison to controls. After G-CSF therapy a significant increase in IFN-alpha production ability was detected. We conclude that G-CSF treatment for 3-7 days does not only increase the number of white blood cells (WBC) and neutrophilic granulocytes but also modify the host response of patients with hematological malignancies to microbial infections.     

Activity of administered radiopharmaceutical agents and the radiation burden of the Czechoslovak population caused by nuclear medicine

The authors assessed by means of questionnaires the activities of radiopharmaceuticals administered in departments of nuclear medicine in Czechoslovakia. The mean activities of individual radiopharmaceuticals are roughly equal as in Great Britain, but lower than in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The differences of activities used in different departments are approximately equal in all compared countries. In the Czech Republic the annual collective effective dose equivalent from nuclear medicine was 433 Sv in 1983 and 609 Sv in 1987. The mean effective dose equivalent per examination was 2.23 mSv in 1983 and 2.44 mSv in 1987. The mean effective dose equivalent per inhabitant of the Czech Republic was 0.042 mSv in 1983 and 0.059 mSv in 1987. The radiation dose of the Czech population from nuclear medicine amounts approximately to one tenth of the load from radiodiagnostics.     

Factors influencing scores on the social responsiveness scale

Background: The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is a parent‐completed screening questionnaire often used to measure autism spectrum disorders (ASD) severity. Although child characteristics are known to influence scores from other ASD‐symptom measures, as well as parent‐questionnaires more broadly, there has been limited consideration of how non‐ASD‐specific factors may affect interpretation of SRS scores. Previous studies have explored effects of behavior problems on SRS specificity, but have not addressed influences on the use of the SRS as a quantitative measure of ASD‐symptoms. Method: Raw scores (SRS‐Raw) from parent‐completed SRS were analyzed for 2,368 probands with ASD and 1,913 unaffected siblings. Regression analyses were used to assess associations between SRS scores and demographic, language, cognitive, and behavior measures. Results: For probands, higher SRS‐Raw were associated with greater non‐ASD behavior problems, higher age, and more impaired language and cognitive skills, as well as scores from other parent report measures of social development and ASD‐symptoms. For unaffected siblings, having more behavior problems predicted higher SRS‐Raw; male gender, younger age, and poorer adaptive social and expressive communication skills also showed small, but significant effects. Conclusions: When using the SRS as a quantitative phenotype measure, the influence of behavior problems, age, and expressive language or cognitive level on scores must be considered. If effects of non‐ASD‐specific factors are not addressed, SRS scores are more appropriately interpreted as indicating general levels of impairment, than as severity of ASD‐specific symptoms or social impairment. Additional research is needed to consider how these factors influence the SRS’ sensitivity and specificity in large, clinical samples including individuals with disorders other than ASD.     

Feasibility of shock advice analysis during CPR through removal of CPR artefacts from the human ECG

Mechanical activity from chest compressions and ventilations during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) introduces artefact components into the electrocardiogram (ECG). CPR must therefore be discontinued for reliable shock advice analysis in automated external defibrillators. Reducing or eliminating this detrimental "hands-off" time by removing the CPR artefacts, should significantly improve the defibrillation success rate. The feasibility of this was tested by removing the CPR artefacts using a multichannel adaptive filter, the multichannel recursive adaptive matching pursuit (MC-RAMP) algorithm. Human ECG and reference channel data from episodes with both shockable and non-shockable underlying heart rhythms were recorded from 105 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The performance of a shock advice algorithm was evaluated before and after artefact removal using the MC-RAMP algorithm. From a test set consisting of 92 shockable and 174 non-shockable episodes a sensitivity of 96.7% and specificity of 79.9% was achieved, an increase of approximately 15 and 13%, respectively, compared to no filtering. Good sensitivity was achieved, enabling ECG analysis during CPR that would reduce the hands-off time on patients with shockable rhythms. However, CPR artefact removal on non-shockable rhythms proved a more difficult problem. We need a better understanding of the physiological mixing of artefacts and the underlying heart rhythm and suggest clinical trials to investigate the nature of CPR artefacts further.     

Inorganic or organic zinc and MUC-2, IgA,IL-17, TGF-β4 gene expression and sIgA secretion in broiler chickens

The study compared the effect of dietary supplementation with an inorganic or organic source of zinc (Zn) on mucin 2 (MUC-2) and IgA gene expression, the cytokines IL-17 and TGF-β4 and the secretory IgA content (sIgA) in broiler jejunum. One-day-old chickens were fed an unsupplemented basal diet (BD) or the same BD supplemented with 30 or 70?mg/kg of added Zn from ZnSO₄·H₂O or Zn chelate of glycine hydrate for 40 days. The highly expressed MUC-2 and IgA genes were observed in both groups supplemented with the low-dose Zn sources (30?mg/kg). A higher sIgA concentration was observed in both the ZnSO₄ groups and the glycine-zinc/30?mg group. Our data indicate that the organic Zn chelate has better availability than the inorganic Zn source, and the low-dose Zn diets proved to be more beneficial to the maintenance of intestinal immune homeostasis.     

上海市虹口区2001-2005年居民自杀死亡流行病学分析

目的：对上海市虹口区居民死亡医学登记系统2001—2005年自杀死亡监测资料进行流行病学分析，了解自杀死亡的概况，为预防和控制自杀死亡的干预措施提供依据。方法：采用SPSS11．5软件对2001—2005年226名自杀死亡监测资料进行流行病学分析。结果：5年平均自杀死亡率为5．91／10万，男性高于女性。平均自杀年龄为53．75岁，男性自杀年龄在25岁组及75岁以后较高，女性在60岁以后较高。自杀方式以上吊、跳楼、服毒居多。自杀原因以久病不愈居多。自杀时间以季节交替月份居多。结论：2001—2005年虹口区居民平均自杀死亡率低于估计的全国自杀死亡率，自杀死亡的控制和预防应尤为关注女性，重视男性青年和老年人群的自杀预防，主要策略为提高临床医生诊断识别率、发展社区卫生服务功能、加强健康教育、加强农药管理。