Pharmacy Fill Patterns in Young Urban Children with Persistent Asthma

Background. Medication adherence impacts healthcare utilization. Pharmacy records are useful to establish fill patterns. Objective. Use pharmacy records to establish medication patterns fill patterns for comparison to healthcare utilization. Methods. Pharmacy records of 175 children with persistent asthma were collected and compared to healthcare utilization. Results. Majority of subjects had significant healthcare utilization, low numbers of rescue medications, and poor controller medication fill rates. Those with more rescue medications had more healthcare utilization and more controller medications. Conclusions. Pharmacy fill patterns demonstrate few rescue and/or controller medication fills. Those with more rescue medications reported increased healthcare utilization despite controller medications.     

Primary amyloidosis of the urinary bladder.

Amyloidosis is a systemic disease that usually occurs in the gastrointestinal tract or in muscular or adipose tissue. Primary amyloidosis of the urinary bladder is a rare disease that can mimic bladder cancer on cystoscopic examination as well as in its clinical presentation of painless gross hematuria. This report describes a 49-year-old male with repeated painless gross hematuria, who underwent transurethral resection of a suspected bladder tumor. Pathologic examination revealed papillary urothelial hyperplasia with vascular ectasia and no signs of malignancy. Massive gross hematuria occurred 2.5 years later. Cystoscopy showed multiple papillary lesions with yellowish-brown submucosal plaques on the posterior bladder wall. A second transurethral tumor resection was performed and histologic examination revealed plasma cell infiltration and eosinophilic amorphous deposits in the subepithelial stroma and vascular wall. The deposits were positive for Congo red and apple-green birefringence under polarized light examination but negative for Masson's trichrome stain, indicating that they were not fibrotic in nature. Hence, the diagnosis of amyloidosis of the urinary bladder was confirmed. Screening for amyloidosis was negative in other organ systems and the patient has remained disease-free up to the last follow-up 4 years after the second transurethral resection. Amyloidosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with recurrent hematuria who have symptoms characteristic of bladder cancer but negative pathologic study for malignancy. Correct diagnosis relies on clinical alertness and the use of a special staining technique during pathologic examination.     

Chemical analysis of powder and set forms of Portland cement, gray ProRoot MTA, white ProRoot MTA, and gray MTA-Angelus.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the chemical composition and crystalline structures of Portland cement, gray ProRoot MTA (gray MTA), white ProRoot MTA (white MTA), and gray MTA-Angelus. STUDY DESIGN: X-ray diffraction analysis was used to identify and characterize crystalline phases, and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer was used to determine the chemical composition of the test materials. Both powder form and set form were examined. RESULTS: The crystalline structure and chemical composition of gray and white MTA were similar except for the presence of iron in gray MTA. Both were composed mainly of bismuth oxide and calcium silicate oxide. Portland cement was composed mainly of calcium silicate oxide and did not contain bismuth oxide. Gray MTA-Angelus had a lower content of bismuth oxide than ProRoot MTA. There were no noticeable differences in the chemical composition and crystalline structures between the powder and set forms of any of the material tested. CONCLUSION: Portland cement differed from the MTA by the absence of bismuth ions and presence of potassium ions. Gray MTA contained a significant amount of iron when compared with white MTA. In addition, gray MTA-Angelus had a lower content of bismuth oxide than ProRoot MTA.     

Methacholine and adenosine 5'-monophosphate challenges in children with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans.

Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is a characteristic feature of asthma, but is also frequently demonstrated by children and adults with chronic obstructive lung diseases. AHR is usually measured by bronchial challenges using direct or indirect stimuli. The aim of this study was to compare these two types of bronchial challenge in children with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans (BO). Methacholine and adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) challenges were used as tools for the evaluation of AHR to direct and indirect stimuli, respectively, in children with post-infectious BO (n = 28). These results were compared with those of asthmatic (n = 30) and control children (n = 25). Altogether, twenty-two patients (78.6%) with post-infectious BO were hyperreactive to methacholine with a provocative concentration causing a 20% fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (PC20) of <16 mg x mL(-1), but only six (21.4%) were hyperreactive to AMP with a PC20 of <200 mg x mL(-1). All patients with asthma responded positively to methacholine, and most (28, 93.3%) also responded positively to AMP. The majority of controls were insensitive to both challenges. Airway hyperresponsiveness to methacholine is a frequent, but by no means universal, finding in children with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans, but is usually not accompanied by airway hyperresponsiveness to adenosine 5'-monophosphate. This finding suggests that airway hyperresponsiveness in patients with post-infectious bronchiolitis obliterans has characteristics that differ from those of asthmatic subjects.     

处女膜修补手术及麻醉方法的改进

目的；增大处女膜粘膜瓣的接触面，减少因麻醉造成的处女膜粘膜水肿，提高修复手术的成功率。方法：手术全部采用1％的卡因行粘膜表面麻醉。53例采用瓦合粘膜瓣法，3例用瓦合粘膜瓣联合阴道粘膜瓣修复法。结果：56例术后一月随访，53例处女膜孔径为一指，成功率94．64％。结论：采用1％的卡因粘膜表面麻醉，瓦合粘膜瓣法及瓦合粘膜联合阴道粘膜瓣修复法对处女膜修复是行之有效的。     

Combining spin echoes with gradient echoes in the context of the global coherent free precession pulse sequence.

To extend the signal longevity of magnetically excited spins in flowing fluids while in a state of global coherent free precession (GCFP), a refocusing radiofrequency (RF) pulse and bipolar gradient waveforms were combined with the GCFP sequence. The data demonstrate that RF refocusing in the presence of flowing blood is possible, but the improvement in signal amplitude depends on the static magnetic field homogeneity along the direction of motion and the displacement of the spins between the excitation and the RF refocusing pulse, as well as displacement during subsequent RF refocusing pulses. The least amount of phase dispersion and thus the longest lasting signal is obtained with the shortest echo spacing where only one line of data is recorded between two RF refocusing pulses. This approach was successfully used in a phantom and in vivo to image fast and slow blood flow. Depending on the experimental conditions, signal persistence is improved significantly compared to playing the same sequence without RF refocusing, but the improvement is limited by the product of blood flow velocity and the time between RF refocusing pulses.     

Cerebral venous malformation complicated by spontaneous thrombosis

A case of spontaneous thrombosis and infarction leading to death as complications of a cerebral venous malformation in a 13-yearold boy is reported. This is the first published report of this type of complication occurring in a case of venous angioma. While the biologic behavior of cerebral venous malformations has suggested that they are benign in nature, and the results of surgical management have encouraged a conservative approach, the present case illustrates a potential complication and argues against the assumption that these malformations are completely benign in nature.