Intravenous cidofovir treatment for recalcitrant warts in the setting of a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome

Cidofovir is an acyclic nucleoside phosphonate with broad-spectrum activity against DNA viruses, including human papilloma virus (HPV). However, data on the efficacy of cidofovir in an immunosuppressive setting remain contradictory. We report for the first time on the promotion of the healing of recalcitrant warts in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome with intravenous cidofovir treatment.     

Slowly progressive hemiparesis in childhood as a consequence of Rasmussen encephalitis without or with delayed-onset seizures

Five young children developed slowly progressive hemiparesis as the initial manifestation of Rasmussen encephalitis (RE). Three have remained seizure free over an observational period of 1.3–1.9 years. In the remaining two patients, seizures occurred after 0.5 and 0.6 years respectively. We suggest that RE might be presently underdiagnosed and should be suspected in cases of new onset hemiparesis. In this series, three out of five patients showed oligoclonal bands on examination of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which represented additional diagnostic hints towards an immune-mediated condition. According to recently published formal diagnostic criteria, evidence of progressive cerebral hemiatrophy or bioptic identification of RE-typical inflammation confirms the diagnosis in such cases. Long-term immunotherapy is recommended in order to prevent further tissue loss and functional decline.     

Selenium content and glutathione peroxidase activity in the testis of the maturing rat

In rats fed a diet with 0.25 mg Se/kg the testis selenium content rose during maturation. The value in 4-mo-old animals (7.0 mg Se/kg dry mass; 0.9 mg Se/kg wet mass) was six times higher than that in 20-d-old weanling rats. By comparison, the selenium content in the main selenium pools, muscle and liver, remained unchanged and rose by half, respectively. Due to the increased selenium requirement of the testis during its pubertal maturation the amount of selenium taken up by the male gonads was 50% of the amount deposited in muscle and liver, whereas before and after that period it was about 10%. Feeding animals a low vitamin E diet had no effect on the rise in testis selenium. Glutathione peroxidase activity was twice as high in 4-mo-old animals as in weanling rats. Because only a small percentage of the element in the male gonads was bound to the enzyme, the rise in testis selenium must have been due to other selenium compounds. The selenium content of the spermatozoa was about 21 mg Se/kg dry mass, which by far exceeded the level of this element in other compartments of the rat. The increase in testis selenium content coincided with the beginning of spermatogenesis, and it may therefore ensure the supply of adequate amounts of the element for the spermatozoa.     

Gender specific processing of eye contact within the human medial temporal lobe.

Eye contact is a powerful social stimulus for human and non-human primates. However, it is unclear whether brain mechanisms that interpret eye contact are sensitive to gender. Here we show that human brain responses to eye contact are indeed gender specific. Recording event-related potentials directly from the medial temporal lobes, we found that eye contact elicited specific responses in men only when they saw female faces. Conversely, women responded specifically to eye contact only when they saw pictures of men. Thus, the human medial temporal lobes subserve specifically the processing of eye contact with persons of the opposite gender.     

Digital radiography of subtle pulmonary abnormalities: an ROC study of the effect of pixel size on observer performance

Forty conventional radiographs with examples of mild interstitial infiltrates and subtle pneumothoraces and 40 normal studies of the chest were selected and digitized, with pixel sizes of 1.0, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.1 mm. Observer performance tests were carried out using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Conventional radiographs and digitized images were compared. The results indicate that, in such cases, diagnostic accuracy increases significantly as the pixel size is reduced, at least to the 0.1-mm level. We conclude that, for digital systems using screen-film or similar image receptors, use of a pixel size substantially larger than 0.1 mm may result in some loss of diagnostic accuracy.     

Frequent ongoing T-cell receptor rearrangements in childhood B- precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia: implications for monitoring minimal residual disease

Crosslineage T-cell receptor delta (TCR delta) rearrangements are widely used as tumor markers for the follow up of minimal residual disease in childhood B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The major drawback of this approach is the risk of false-negative results due to clonal evolution. We investigated the stability of V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangements in a group of 56 childhood B-precursor ALL patients by PCR and Southern blot analysis. At the PCR level, V delta 2D delta 3-to-J alpha rearranged subclones (one pathway for secondary TCR delta recombination) were demonstrated in 85.2% of V delta 2D delta 3-positive patients tested, which showed that small subclones are present in the large majority of patients despite apparently monoclonal TCR delta Southern blot patterns. Sequence analysis of V delta 2D delta 3J alpha rearrangements showed a biased J alpha gene usage, with HAPO5 and J alpha F in 26 of 32 and 6 of 32 clones, respectively. Comparison of V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangement status between diagnosis and first relapse showed differences in seven of eight patients studied. In contrast, from first relapse onward, no clonal changes were observed in six patients studied. To investigate the occurrence of crosslineage TCR delta rearrangements in normal B and T cells, fluorescence-activated cell sorter-sorted peripheral blood CD19+/CD3- and CD19-/CD3+ cell populations from three healthy donors were analyzed. V delta 2D delta 3 rearrangements were detected at low frequencies in both B and T cells, which suggests that V delta 2-to-D delta 3 joining also occurs during normal B-cell differentiation. A model for crosslineage TCR delta rearrangements in B-precursor ALL is deduced that explains the observed clonal changes between diagnosis and relapse and is compatible with multistep leukemogenesis of B-precursor ALL.