The prevalence of Raynaud''s syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis.

To test the validity of the putative association between Raynaud's syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 277 patients with rheumatic disorders were questioned about cold-induced colour reactions in the extremities. The time to recover digital temperature after brief immersion in ice water was used to confirm the presence of Raynaud's syndrome. The prevalence of Raynaud's syndrome in the 148 patients with RA and the 59 patients with osteoarthritis was 2.7% and 5.1% respectively. It is concluded that Raynaud's syndrome is not a frequent accompaniment of RA, and it is suggested that in view of the close association between Raynaud's syndrome and certain other disorders, such as mixed connective tissue disease and scleroderma, when patients present with polysynovitis and Raynaud's syndrome special consideration should be given to these conditions.     

A rapid micro-method for the screening and measurement of barbiturates and related compounds in plasma by gas-liquid chromatography

A rapid gas-chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of butobarbitone, amylobarbitone, hexabarbitone, pentobarbitone, quinalbarbitone, phenobarbitone glutethimide, and methaqualone in `finger-prick' samples of plasma. This has been applied to the analysis of some of these drugs in plasma taken from patients after therapeutic dosage and over-dosage.     

Dracunculiasis eradication: the final inch

This report summarizes the status of the Dracunculiasis Eradication Program as of early 2005. Nine of the 20 countries that were endemic for this disease when the program began have already interrupted transmission, Asia is free of Guinea worm, and five of the remaining disease-endemic countries reported less than 50 cases each in 2004. Ghana and Sudan each reported 45% of the 16,026 cases in 2004. Except for Sudan, whose reports are delayed, cases in the remaining disease-endemic countries were reduced by 61% during the first quarter of 2005 compared with the same period of 2004. With accelerating momentum towards zero cases in all countries, the recent settlement of Sudan's north-south civil war, and a new challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the way now seems clear to finish eradicating dracunculiasis by 2009 in Sudan and earlier elsewhere. "The rule of the final inch... The work has been almost completed, the goal almost attained... In that moment of fatigue and self-satisfaction it is especially tempting to leave the work without having attained the apex of quality... In fact, the rule of the Final Inch consists in this: not to shirk this crucial work. Not to postpone it... And not to mind the time spent on it, knowing that one's purpose lies... in the attainment of perfection."--Alexander Solzhenitzyn, The First Circle.     

The Problem of Food Allergy in Childhood

Any physician whose responsibility it is to care for allergic children is aware that food can be an important allergen. Although ingestant sensitivity (food, drugs, drinks) is not so common as that of the inhalants, nevertheless, it can be and sometimes is the chief offender or a major or minor complicating factor in almost any allergic disorder in childhood.     

Evidence of congenital heart disease in the offspring of parents with atrioventricular defects.

Fifty-two of the 56 offspring from 90 patients with proven atrioventricular defects were examined. There were five with congenital heart disease. The defects were concordant in three and discordant in two. The mother was the affected propositus in all cases. In this relatively small sample the incidence of congenital heart disease in the offspring of parents with atrioventricular defects was 9.6%, or 14.3% if only the female propositi were considered. This is a much higher figure than that reported for the simple forms of isolated congenital heart disease.     

Diminished experience-dependent neuroanatomical plasticity: evidence for an improved biomarker of subtle neurotoxic damage to the developing rat brain

Millions of children are exposed to low levels of environmental neurotoxicants as their brains are developing. Conventional laboratory methods of neurotoxicology can detect maldevelopment of brain structure but are not designed to detect maldevelopment of the brain's capacity for plasticity that could impair learning throughout life. The environmental complexity (EC) paradigm has become classic for demonstrating the modifications in brain structure that occur in response to experience and thus provides a set of indices for plasticity in the healthy brain. In this study, we have tested the hypothesis that if degradation of experience-dependent cortical plasticity is used as a biomarker, then developmental neurotoxic effects will be detected at doses below those that alter cortical morphogenesis overtly. Pregnant Long-Evans hooded rats received a single injection of either saline vehicle or 1, 5, 10, or 25 mg/kg of the well-characterized developmental neurotoxicant methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM) on the 16th or 17th day of gestation. On postnatal days 35-39, male offspring were assigned to either a complex environment (EC) or an individual cage (IC) for 28 days to stimulate neuroanatomical plasticity. This response was measured as the difference between the thickness of visual cortex of IC and EC littermates at a given dose. The threshold dose for significant reduction of cortical thickness was 25 mg/kg, but the threshold dose for failure of plasticity was much lower and could be detected at 1 mg/kg, the lowest dose used. No other method of assessment has detected lasting effects of prenatal exposure to MAM at such a low dose. These data suggest that this simple test of plasticity could be an efficient way to detect subtle neurotoxic damage to the developing brain.