Plasma lipoprotein response to substituting fish for red meat in the diet

The effect of 6 wk of either red meat (RM) or fatty fish (FF) intake on plasma lipid concentrations in 28 free-living volunteers (12 males, 16 females) aged 22-45 y was investigated in this clinical crossover trial. Dietary intake was estimated by 7-d dietary records, and fasting blood samples were analyzed for plasma lipid concentrations. Although energy intake did not differ, protein intake was higher (P less than 0.01) in the FF period than in the RM period. There was also a difference (P less than 0.001) in the ratio of dietary polyunsaturated to saturated fatty acids in the RM (0.45) and FF (0.93) periods. Mean plasma total cholesterol, low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, very-low-density-lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol VLDL-triacylglycerol, and plasma triacylglycerol concentrations were lower (P less than 0.001) in the FF than in the RM period. Positive correlations between animal-protein intake and plasma lipoproteins were observed. Atherogenic plasma lipoprotein concentrations were lower when FF was substituted for RM.     

Respiratory atopic disease, Ascaris-immunoglobulin E and tuberculin testing in urban South African children

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological relation of intestinal helminth infection and atopic disease, both associated with a T-helper (Th) 2 immune response, is controversial, as it has been reported that helminth infection may either suppress or pre-dispose to atopic disease. This relation has not been tested in an area with a high burden of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection, a known Th1-stimulating infection. OBJECTIVE: To study the association of intestinal helminth infection and atopic disease in a community where helminth infection is endemic and MTB infection is high. METHODS: Three-hundred and fifty-nine randomly selected children aged 6-14 years from a poor urban suburb were tested with allergy questionnaire, skin prick test (SPT) to common aeroallergens, Ascaris-specific IgE (Ascaris-sIgE), fecal examination for pathogenic intestinal helminths and tuberculin skin testing (TST). Histamine bronchoprovocation was tested in the group of children aged 10 years and older. RESULTS: were corrected for demographic variables, socioeconomic status, parental allergy, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in the household, recent anthelminthic treatment and for clustering in the sampling unit. Results Ascaris-sIgE was elevated in 48% of children, Ascaris eggs were found in 15% and TST was positive in 53%. Children with elevated Ascaris-sIgE had significantly increased risk of positive SPT to aeroallergens, particularly house dust mite, atopic asthma (ever and recent), atopic rhinitis (ever and recent) and increased atopy-related bronchial hyper-responsiveness. In children with negative TST (<10 mm), elevated Ascaris-sIgE was associated with significantly increased risk of atopic symptoms (adjusted odds ratio (OR(adj)) 6.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.9-22.4), whereas in those with positive TST (>/=10 mm) this association disappeared (OR(adj) 0.96; 95% CI 0.4-2.8). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that immune response to Ascaris (Ascaris-sIgE) may be a risk factor of atopic disease in populations exposed to mild Ascaris infection and that MTB infection may be protective against this risk, probably by stimulation of anti-inflammatory networks.     

The prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infections in new patients at the Infertility Clinic, UOFS, Bloemfontein

Chlamydia trachomatis is a common sexually transmitted agent causing infertility. Routine screening tests or empirical antibiotic treatment of infertile couples may be justified by the prevalence of this organism. In this study the female partner of 40 consecutive infertile couples was investigated. As a screening test direct immunofluorescence (DIF) was performed on fixed smears from endocervical swabs. Of a total of 40 specimens, 11 (27.5%) were positive, 25 (62.5%) were negative and 4 (10.0%) were equivocal. DIF was repeated on smears from 3 of the last 4 patients and all 3 specimens were positive for C. trachomatis. One patient was lost to follow-up and excluded from the study. Of a total of 39 specimens the final results yielded 14 (35.9%) positive and 25 (64.1%) negative. Statistical analysis showed no correlation between the clinical history and the presence of C. trachomatis infection.     

cagA Status and eradication treatment outcome of anti-Helicobacter pylori triple therapies in patients with nonulcer dyspepsia

The differences in eradication rates reported in clinical trials aiming to cure Helicobacter pylori infection cannot be entirely explained by the type of regimen, bacterial resistance, or lack of compliance. Using data from a clinical trial, a logistic regression model was constructed to determine whether cagA status, assessed by PCR, affects the outcome of eradication. Resistance to clarithromycin (10% of the strains) predicted failure perfectly. In the model (n = 156), a cagA-lacking strain (odds ratio [OR] = 2.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], (1.1 to 4.7), tobacco smoking OR = 3.1; 95% CI, 1.3 to 7.0), and a double dose of proton pump inhibitor in the treatment regimen (OR = 0.3; 95% CI, 0.2 to 0.7) were associated with the treatment outcome. The exact role of cagA in the outcome of H. pylori eradication therapy has not been explored. However, the type of histological lesions which it causes in the gastric mucosa may be implicated. Regardless of the mechanism involved, cagA status is a good predictive marker of eradication outcome.     

Evaluation of the association of nine Helicobacter pylori virulence factors with strains involved in low-grade gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma

Helicobacter pylori has been associated with the development of two malignant diseases: gastric adenocarcinoma and gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. Although the cag pathogenicity island, especially the cagA gene, has been linked with adenocarcinoma, few data concerning H. pylori pathogenic factors involved in low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma are available. The goal of this study was to analyze the prevalence of and correlation between genes coding for seven H. pylori virulence factors (cagA, cagE, vacA, iceA, babA, hopQ, and oipA) and two novel adhesins (sabA and hopZ) by comparing a collection of 43 H. pylori strains isolated from patients with low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma to 39 strains isolated from age-matched patients with gastritis only. Our results show that taken individually, none of the nine genes tested can be considered associated with MALT strains and allow us to conclude that MALT pathogenesis is not linked with more proinflammatory H. pylori strains. We demonstrated that in patients infected with strains harboring the iceA1 allele, sabA functional status, and hopZ "off" status, the odds of developing a MALT lymphoma were 10 times higher. However, the low prevalence of such strains (10 of 43 MALT strains) renders this triple association a low-sensitivity marker for MALT strains. Our data confirmed that H. pylori virulence factors are correlated with one another. If the involvement of H. pylori in MALT lymphoma is well established, the pathomechanism by which gastric lymphoma occurs remains to be identified.     

Incidental langerhans cell histiocytosis of thyroid: case report and review of the literature

We report a case of a 42-yr-old woman with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) confined to the thyroid and associated with lymphocytic thyroiditis and a papillary microcarcinoma. This patient remains free of symptoms 14 mo after surgery. Thyroid LCH is rare. In children, it usually occurs as part of a multisystemic disease, whereas it is usually exclusive in adults. Isolated thyroid LCH is frequently associated with another thyroid disease, especially lymphocytic thyroiditis, suggesting that it is a reactive process rather than a neoplastic proliferation. The prognosis of isolated thyroid LCH is good. However, because it can rarely precede or reveal a multisystemic disease, additional investigations as well as a prolonged follow-up are justified.     

Distribution of open reading frames of plasticity region of strain J99 in Helicobacter pylori strains isolated from gastric carcinoma and gastritis patients in Costa Rica

The plasticity region of Helicobacter pylori strain J99 is a large chromosomal segment containing 33 strain-specific open reading frames (ORFs) with characteristics of a pathogenicity island. To study the diversity of the plasticity region, 22 probes corresponding to 20 ORFs inside the plasticity region and two ORFs on its boundaries were hybridized to genomic DNA isolated from clinical strains of H. pylori from patients with gastritis or gastric adenocarcinoma. Highly variable hybridization patterns were observed. The majority of the clinical strains presented a hybridization profile similar to that of J99; thus, these ORFs are not J99 strain specific. No association was found between a particular hybridization pattern and the clinical origin of the strain. Nevertheless, two single ORFs (JHP940 and JHP947) were more likely to be found in gastric cancer strains. They may be new pathogenicity markers. An in vitro expression study of these ORFs was also performed for the J99 strain, under different conditions. Thirteen ORFs were consistently expressed, six were consistently shut off, and three were expressed differentially. Most of the constitutionally expressed genes were located on the 3' part of the plasticity region. Our results show that the plasticity region, rather than being considered a pathogenicity island per se, should be considered a genomic island, which represents a large fragment of foreign DNA integrated into the genome and not necessarily implicated in the pathogenic capacity of the strain.     

Seroresponses to human papillomavirus types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45 virus-like particles in South African women with cervical cancer and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of antibodies to human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16, 18, 31, 33, and 45 in woman in Cape Town with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) (n = 95), cervical cancer (n = 40), female blood donors (n = 95) and children (n = 110). The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) made use of baculovirus synthesised HPV virus like particles (VLPs) as antigen. Antibodies to at least one HPV type were detected in sera from 75% of cancer patients, 71.6% of CIN patients, 44.2% of blood donors and 27.3% of children. Sera from 95 women with CIN were compared with age-matched female blood donors. There was a significant association of seropositivity to VLP-16 (P = 0.006) and VLP-45 (P = 0.008) with CIN compared with the blood donors. There was also a significant difference in the seropositivity of women with CIN to any of the five virus-like particle (VLP) types compared to the blood donors (P = 0.0002: OR = 3.2). Thirty-nine of sixty-nine (56.5%) women with CIN were found to be HPV-16 DNA positive. The average age of women in this group that were VLP-16 seropositive was 34 years and those found to be VLP-16 seronegative was 52 years of age. Antibodies to all five VLP types were detected in these populations, thus an ideal vaccine should induce protection from infection by a wide range of HPV types.     

Cognitive control in childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder: a functional MRI study

BACKGROUND: Failure to resist chronic obsessive-compulsive symptoms may denote an altered state of cognitive control. We searched for the cerebral regions engaged in this dysfunction. METHOD: Differences in brain regional activity were examined by event-related functional magnetic regional imaging (fMRI) in a group of adolescents or young adults (n = 12) with childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), relative to healthy subjects. Subjects performed a conflict task involving the presentation of two consecutive and possibly conflicting prime and target numbers. Patients' image dataset was further analysed according to resistance or non-resistance to symptoms during the scans. RESULTS: Using volume correction based on a priori hypotheses, an exploratory analysis revealed that, within the prime-target repetition condition, the OCD subjects activated more than healthy subjects a subregion of the anterior cingulate gyrus and the left parietal lobe. Furthermore, compared with 'resistant' patients, the 'non-resistant' OCD subjects activated a bilateral network including the precuneus, pulvinar and paracentral lobules. CONCLUSIONS: Higher regional activations suggest an abnormal amplification process in OCD subjects during the discrimination of repetitive visual stimuli. The regional distribution of functional changes may vary with the patients' ability to resist obsessions.