Incidence and survival in patients with pharyngeal cancer in northern Finland

A population-based survey was conducted in northern Finland in order to study the incidence rate and survival in patients with pharyngeal cancer diagnosed between 1986 to 1996. A total of 95 new patients with hypopharyngeal, oropharyngeal or nasopharyngeal cancers were identified. The overall age-adjusted incidence rates (per 100,000 years) were 1.28 in men and 0.60 in women, giving an overall incidence rate of 0.89. Most of the tumours were diagnosed at stage IV, and the median disease-specific survival times were 27.6 months for the patients with oropharyngeal cancer, 13.5 months for nasopharyngeal cancer and 17.7 for hypopharyngeal cancer. The most important factors that were associated with a poor prognosis were stage IV in oropharyngeal [Hazard ratio (HR) 3.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.97-13.92] and hypopharyngeal cancer (HR 3.99, CI 1.51-10.67) and age over 65 years in nasopharyngeal cancer (HR 9.28, CI 1.79-47.99).     

Effect of Calcitonin on the Alcohol Drinking of Rats

Previous work has shown that calcitonin inhibits eating by rats and that it affects several neurotransmitter systems suspected to play a role in alcohol consumption. The present study was an initial test of whether calcitonin does affect voluntary alcohol consumption by male Wistar rats with prolonged alcohol experience. Calcitonin (20 IU/kg) or saline was injected subcutaneously on 10 consecutive days when the rats (n = 20) had continual access to 10% (v/v) ethanol solution, and to food and water. Using a cross-over design, the effects of 40 IU/kg calcitonin vs. saline were then examined in a second 10-day treatment period. Similar patterns of effects were obtained with both calcitonin doses, but the patterns differed with alcohol, food, and water intake. Alcohol drinking showed biphasic changes with both doses, producing highly significant Treatment x Day interactions (p < 1E-10 and p = 6E-7): it was significantly reduced on the first day of calcitonin treatment and significantly increased on the last few days. Food intake was reduced on all calcitonin days although most markedly on the first. Water drinking was not altered on the first calcitonin day, but was greatly increased on the second, then gradually returned toward the baseline. In a second experiment, the animals were switched to 1 hr of alcohol access per day, and calcitonin (20 IU/kg) was administered periodically to one group 4 hr before the alcohol access. Alcohol drinking was significantly reduced in all cases when the calcitonin injection was preceded by at least 1 day without calcitonin.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Lens opacity in patients with hypercholesterolemia and ischaemic heart disease

Lens opacity studies were performed using an electronic Lens Opacity Meter (Interzeag Opacity Lensmeter 701) in a population (n = 321) with ischaemic heart disease. These patients are participating in a trial targetting at the reduction of mortality and incidence of myocardial infarction using a cholesterol-lowering drug, simvastatin. A separate study to evaluate the reliability of the method showed good reproducibility. Repeated measurements after a short time-interval (2–10 days) gave statistically lower opacity values either due to a change in lens transparency or perhaps a change in pigment and cell dispersion in the acqueous caused by repeated mydriasis. Lens opacity values showed a highly significant positive correlation to age. Serum cholesterol, systolic blood pressure and smoking habits showed no significant correlations to the levels of lens opacity when adjustments for age were made.Abbreviations HMG-CoA hydroxy-methylglutarylcoenzyme A - 4S Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study - LOM lens opacity meter     

Incidences of selected lesions in control female Harlan Sprague-Dawley rats from two-year studies performed by the National Toxicology Program

The NTP has a long history of using Fischer rats and has compiled a large database of incidences of lesions seen in control animals. Such a database is lacking for Harlan Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The intention of this paper is to report spontaneous lesions observed in female vehicle control Harlan SD rats, and to compare the incidence in 2 strains of rats (Fischer and Harlan SD) used in NTP studies. Female Harlan SD rats served as the test animals for a special series of 2-year studies. Male rats were not used in these studies. Complete histopathology was performed on all animals, and the pathology results underwent comprehensive NTP pathology peer review. The most commonly observed neoplasms in these female control Harlan SD rats were mammary gland fibroadenoma (71%), tumors of the pars distalis of the pituitary (41%) and thyroid gland C-cell tumors (30%). Female Fischer rats had incidences of 44% for mammary gland fibroadenomas, 34% for tumors of the pars distalis, and 16% for thyroid gland C-cell tumors. Fischer rats had a 15% incidence of clitoral gland tumors, while the Harlan SD rats had an incidence of < 1%. In contrast to Fischer F344 rats, the Harlan SD rats had a high incidence of squamous metaplasia of the uterus (44.2%). Squamous metaplasia is not a lesion commonly observed in NTP control Fischer rats. The Harlan SD rats had a very low incidence of mononuclear cell leukemia (0.5%), compared with an incidence of 24% in female Fischer rats.     

Salience of Guilty Knowledge Test items affects accuracy in realistic mock crimes.

Guilty Knowledge Test measuring electrodermal reactions was carried out in order to investigate the quality of different questions and the validity of the test in a situation that resembled a true crime. Fifty participants were randomly assigned to commit one of two realistic mock crimes, and were later tested with GKTs concerning both the crime they had enacted and the one they had no knowledge of. Different scoring systems (SCRs and peak amplitudes as well as raw and standardised scores) were employed and compared when analyzing the results. Although there were some false positives, the test was able to differentiate between the groups of guilty and innocent participants. With the best scoring systems, the test was able to classify up to 84% of the innocent and up to 76% of the guilty correctly according to a logistic regression analysis. ROC areas reflecting these same results reached values above .80. Questions on matters that demanded the participants' attention and were easier to remember had better discriminative power. With nearly all scoring methods, there was a significant interaction between the salience of the relevant items and the guilt of the participants. Participants reacted more strongly to salient relevant items when they were guilty, while no different reactions were observed for the non-salient items between guilty and innocent participants. It is suggested that, although the Guilty Knowledge Test appears to be a valid measure of guilty knowledge even in crimes that are close to real crimes, the principles on which guilty knowledge test questions are constructed should be more clearly specified.     

The effect of phenytoin in vitro on normal human mononuclear cells and on human lymphoblastoid B cell lines of different Ig isotype specificities

The anticonvulsant drug phenytoin, in less than cytotoxic concentrations, caused significant reductions in Ig secretion by unstimulated or EBV-stimulated normal MNC, as measured by PFC or secretion of Ig into the culture medium. Isotype-specific LBL varied in their sensitivity, the secretion of IgA (1 line) and IgG (3 lines) being reduced by phenytoin near therapeutic concentrations, whereas that of IgM (1 line) was resistant. Six-day exposure of MNC to phenytoin caused no selective depletion of or enrichment for B cells, monocytes or T cell subsets. The results suggest that the reduction in serum Ig levels reported in phenytoin-treated epileptic patients is, at least in part, due to a direct effect of the drug on the B lymphocyte. However, among EBV-activated normal MNC, those secreting IgA were no more sensitive to the drug than those secreting IgG or IgM, and other factors may, therefore, operate to cause the preferential reduction in serum IgA in phenytoin-treated patients.     

Nosocomial Legionella pneumophila serogroup 5 outbreak associated with persistent colonization of a hospital water system

An outbreak of infections caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 5 was detected in a university hospital, and nosocomial reservoirs of the legionella epidemic were examined. Clinical isolates from two patients who had been affected by the L. pneumophila serogroup 5 outbreak, and from another patient with a legionella infection caused by the same serogroup 3 years later, were compared to L. pneumophila serogroup 5 isolates from the hospital water supply by two molecular methods, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis and random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD). Genotyping confirmed the epidemiological linkage of the first two patients, and linked their infections with the hospital water supply. The third clinical strain, which was also linked to the hospital water, was very similar to the epidemic strain. Even though the water distribution system was sanitized (superheat and flush sanitation), the epidemic strain was shown to be persisting in the hospital water outlets several years after its initial discovery.     

European seroepidemiology network 2: Standardisation of assays for seroepidemiology of varicella zoster virus.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the European Sero-Epidemiology Network (ESEN2) is to harmonise the serological surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases in Europe. OBJECTIVE: To allow comparison of antibody prevalence in different countries by standardising results into common units. STUDY DESIGN: For varicella zoster virus (VZV), a reference laboratory established a panel of 148 samples, characterised by indirect enzyme-immunoassay (ELISA), indirect immunofluorescence, and complement fixation test. Fifty-seven samples were also studied by the fluorescence antibody to membrane antigen test. The geometric mean of the antibody activity (GMAA) obtained from four ELISA determinations was used to characterise each sample of the panel as positive (GMAA: >100 mIU/ml), equivocal (GMAA: 50-100 mIU/ml) or negative (GMAA: <50 mIU/ml) for antibody to VZV (anti-VZV). Thirteen laboratories, using five different ELISA tests, tested the panel. RESULTS: Agreement with the reference laboratory was above 85% in all cases, and the R(2) values obtained from regression analysis of the quantitative results were always higher than 0.87. Finally, the regression equations could be used to convert national values into a common unitage. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that results for anti-VZV obtained by different ELISA methods can be converted into common units, enabling the comparison of the seroprevalence profiles obtained in the participant countries.