Allergen microarray: comparison of microarray using recombinant allergens with conventional diagnostic methods to detect allergen-specific serum immunoglobulin E

BACKGROUND: The availability of recombinant allergens and recent advances in biochip technology led to the development of a novel test system for the detection of allergen-specific IgE. OBJECTIVE: To test the performance of this allergen microarray in a serological analytical study. METHODS: Standard allergens contained in grass pollen (Phl p 1, Phl p 2, Phl p 5 and Phl p 6) and tree pollen (Bet v 1 and Bet v 2) were used as a model system. The detection of allergen-specific serum IgE using microarrays was compared with standard test systems: CAP/RAST and an in-house ELISA. In order to test the analytical sensitivity of the assays, geometric dilutions of a serum pool containing high levels of pollen-specific IgE from allergic individuals were tested in each system. To assess the analytical specificity, the sera of 51 patients with presumptive allergic symptoms were collected before diagnosis. Thereafter, the results for grass/tree-pollen-specific IgE were compared. RESULTS: The microarray has a good dynamic range similar to the CAP/RAST system. Microarray and ELISA showed comparable analytical sensitivity exceeding the CAP/RAST system. With respect to the analytical specificity, no significant cross-reactivity of the allergens was observed. For two of the allergens tested, weak positive signals were detected in the microarray test system, whereas they were not detectable by CAP/RAST. CONCLUSION: A good correlation of presently used methods to detect serum IgE and the novel microarray test system was observed. As a next step, a careful validation of this method for a multitude of allergens and a thorough clinical evaluation has to be provided. Microarray testing of allergen-specific IgE can be presumed to be the method of choice for a prospective component-resolved diagnosis of Type I allergy, and the basis for the design and monitoring of a patient-tailored specific immunotherapy in the future.     

Focused helical appendiceal computed tomography: Technique and interpretation

This article reviews a focused helical appendiceal computed tomographic technique and discusses an approach to appendiceal computed tomographic interpretation.     

Mitochondrial DNA variability detected in a single wheat regenerant involves a rare recombination event across a short repeat

The mitochondrial genome of the selfed progeny of a plant regenerated from long-term somatic tissue culture displays specific structural rearrangements characterized by the appearance of novel restriction fragments. A mitochondrial DNA library was constructed from this selfed progeny in the SalI site of cosmid pHC79 and the novel fragments were subsequently studied. They were shown to arise from reciprocal recombination events involving DNA sequences present in the parental plant. The regions of recombination were sequenced and the nucleotide sequences were aligned with those of the presumptive parental fragments. We characterized an imperfect short repeated DNA sequence, 242 bp long, within which a 7-bb DNA repeat could act as a region of recombination. The use of PCR technology allowed us to show that these fragments were present in both parental plants and tissue cultures as low-abundance sequence arrangements.     

提取青蒿素实验条件的研究

对从青蒿叶中提取青蒿素的各种方法及实验条件进行实验比较，结果表明，采用索氏提取法及以Ｂ号油为溶剂，具有提取率较高，时间短、操作方便、耗油少等特点。     

The History,Science, and Innovation of Holter Technology

Holter technology has endured for more than 40 years, and proven to be a valuable adjunctive noninvasive diagnostic technology to record the ambulatory or long‐term electrocardiogram in the study of living creatures. During this span of time, many scientists, physicians, and innovators contributed to the development and evolution of Holter technology. This essay seeks to document a view of the history and evolution of the technology during that time, and concomitantly give recognition to the scientists, physicians, and engineers who contributed so greatly.     

多媒体技术在医学生物学实验教学中的应用

本文联系医学生物学实验课程和多媒体技术的特点，探讨了多媒体技术在医学生物学实验教学中的应用。指出在基础医学实验教学中教师要利用多媒体技术的优点，结合课件制作和教学中应注意的问题，才能充分发挥多媒体技术在教学中的作用，提高教学质量。     

药品数据同步技术的设计与实现

研究医院HIS系统中药品数据的异地存储技术。利用Mobilink同步技术，实现Microsoft SQL Server统一数据库和Adaptive ServerAnywhere远程数据库之间的数据同步。     

一种用于基因表达谱分析的基因芯片方法

目的：通过研究SLE患者外周血基因表达谱的改变，建立一种新型的基因芯片技术用于分子发病机理的研究。方法：提取总RNA，逆转录合成单链cDNA、双链cDNA，体外转录合成生物标记的cRNA与基因芯片进行杂交，通过抗体的检测标记荧光染料Cy3，基因芯片扫描仪进行图像扫描。结果：该方法有较高的重复性和稳定性，SLE患者与正常对照组相比较，鉴定出94个基因存在表达差异。结论：该方法能在较少起始标本量的情况下，有效地进行SLE致病基因的筛选，更好的理解SLE发生的分子机理，并且可在其它疾病研究中推广应用。     

Anaesthesia monitoring: the human factors component of technology transfer

Resistance to change in monitoring practices from within the anaesthesiology community is a formidable obstacle, and coercive and exhortatory solutions are likely to be unsuccessful in some situations. An analysis of publications about technology transfer and professional obsolescence, and application of this data to the practice of anaesthesia, reveals various stresses that technology transfer from research areas to the workplace may induce in vulnerable anaesthesiologists and account for their attitudes. It is suggested that the invaluable pronouncements of high profile anaesthesiologist groups must be supplemented by supportive behaviour by physicians and administrators at an institutional level. The human factors issues to be addressed include: (i) Monitored data acquisition skills. (ii) Possibility of acting on monitored data. (iii) Assistance for personal insight into attitudinal difficulties that may be encountered. (iv) Data supporting the value of the device. (v) Ergonomically effective integration of the monitor into the work station.Alternatively the perceptions of potential users may accurately reflect changes in their status in the new work situation created by monitors, and decision making aids that may or may not be derived from them. Thus, plans to present job satisfaction in related clinical areas or to associate the proposed new system with evaluation of its effect on patient outcome will be necessary. In this way the clinician becomes involved in clinical research, a quality of personal and quality care development.     

Time after excision and temperature alter ex vivo tissue relaxation time measurements

Previously unreported effects of tissue storage were recently observed in the authors' experimental magnetic resonance (MR) studies. To evaluate the effect of elapsed time after excision and storage temperature on tissue relaxation time measurements, tissue samples from the liver, pancreas, kidney, testis, spleen, and brain were obtained in rats. T1 and T2 were first measured within 5 minutes of excision, and between subsequent measurements, tubes were kept in a water bath at 40°C, at room temperature (28°C), or in an ice bath (4°C). Cellular and organellar integrity was assessed with electron microscopy and correlated with the MR findings. At 40°C (20-MHz spectrometer), the T1 of liver decreased from 280 msec ± 8 to 212 msec ± 10 during the first 60 minutes; the T1 of pancreas decreased from 276 msec ± 3 to 208 msec ± 2. Other tissues showed less than a 5% decrease in T1. T2 changes were smaller than T1 changes in all tissues. Electron microscopy of pancreatic acinar cells showed postmortem changes in mitochondria evolving over the first 60 minutes after death. Manganese loading experiments implicated mitochondrial manganese stores in the observed enhanced postmortem decrease in T1. This study calls into question reported relaxation time data for liver and pancreas. MR studies of excised tissues must account for time and temperature to prevent systematic experimental errors.