Depression Scale (DEPS) among suicide attempters

The Depression Scale (DEPS), a new screening instrument for detecting depression in primary health care, was compared with the Hamilton Depression Scale (HDS) among 50 suicide attempters. Using the HDS as a gold standard, the positive and negative predictive values of the DEPS for the diagnosis of depression were 98% and 20%, respectively. The correlation between the total HDS scores and the total DEPS scores was 0.60. The DEPS may help general practitioners to detect depression among suicide attempters, but it should not be used to exclude depression.     

'Vanishing embryo syndrome' in IVF/ICSI

BACKGROUND: In a Danish population-based cohort study assessing the risk of cerebral palsy in children born after IVF, we made some interesting observations regarding 'vanishing co-embryos'. METHODS and RESULTS: All live-born children born in Denmark from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2000 were included in this analysis. The children conceived by IVF/ICSI (9444) were identified through the IVF Register, the children conceived without IVF/ICSI (395 025) were identified through The Danish Medical Birth Register. Main outcome measure was the incidence of cerebral palsy. Within the IVF/ICSI children we found indications of an increased risk of cerebral palsy in those children resulting from pregnancies, where the number of embryos transferred was higher than the number of children born. CONCLUSIONS: The association between vanishing embryo syndrome and incidence of cerebral palsy following IVF requires further investigation in larger, adequately powered, studies.     

Diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis by two-dimensional immunoblot differentiation of mother and child immunoglobulin g profiles

Differentiation between the specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) response to Toxoplasma gondii by a mother and her newborn child is helpful in the diagnosis of congenital infection with T. gondii in newborns without T. gondii-specific IgM and/or IgA antibodies at birth. Previous methods include immunoblotting and complexing T. gondii antigen with the sera from the mother and child and comparing the bands after electrophoresis. We developed a two-dimensional immunoblotting (2DIB) method with T. gondii RH strain tachyzoite antigen and validated the method with sera from 11 children identified through the neonatal screening program for congenital toxoplasmosis in Denmark. The children were identified by using Toxoplasma-specific IgM antibodies at the screening test, but the presence of T. gondii-specific IgM and/or IgA antibodies could not be confirmed at the subsequent serum sample tested. The children were monitored for at least 12 months, and in seven of eight patients monitored for 12 months the results of the 2DIB-predicted congenital infection were confirmed by the presence of persistent Toxoplasma-specific IgG antibodies. 2DIB is a sensitive technique that allows early differentiation between passively transferred maternal T. gondii-specific IgG antibodies and antibodies synthesized by the newborn child.     

Prevalence of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic sensitization in Mongolia

BACKGROUND: Studies in countries, such as Mongolia, which are in transition from farming to industrial society permit evaluation of the impact of environmental change on atopic diseases. METHODS: In the screening study, questionnaire data were obtained from 9453 subjects aged 10-60 years. In the clinical study, a subsample of 869 subjects (participation rate 50.0%) was examined. A questionnaire-based interview, clinical examination, skin prick tests, spirometry and bronchodilation test or methacholine challenge test were used to define the clinical diagnoses. The prevalences of atopic diseases were evaluated at the population level using two-phase data and sampling weights. RESULTS: The prevalences of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic sensitization with 95% confidence intervals were 1.1% (0.3-2.0%), 9.3% (4.0-14.6%) and 13.6% (7.4-19.9%) in Mongolian villages, 2.4% (1.4-3.5%), 12.9% (8.2-17.7%) and 25.3% (17.1-33.6%) in rural towns and 2.1% (1.3-3.0%), 18.4% (13.3-23.4%) and 31.0% (24.5-37.5%) in Ulaanbaatar city, respectively. The prevalence of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (P = 0.02) and allergic sensitization (P = 0.003) increased significantly with increasing urbanization. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalences of atopic diseases were low in rural Mongolia and increased with increasing urbanization suggesting that rural living environment protects against atopy.     

Improved PCR for detection of the highly leukotoxic JP2 clone of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans in subgingival plaque samples

The JP2 clone of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is associated with early-onset periodontitis in certain ethnic populations of African origin. Here, we describe and evaluate a set of primers for PCR to assay for the presence of A. actinomycetemcomitans and to discriminate between JP2-like strains and other genotypes in subgingival plaque samples.     

Detection of large deletions in the LDL receptor gene with quantitative PCR methods

Background  

Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a common genetic disease and at the molecular level most often due to mutations in the LDL receptor gene. In genetically heterogeneous populations, major structural rearrangements account for about 5% of patients with LDL receptor gene mutations.     

Parent-adolescent agreement on emotional and behavioral problems

Background: The aim of the study is to report parent/youth self-report agreement on emotional and behavioral symptoms among 15- to 16-year-old adolescents. Methods: A completed Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self-Report were obtained from 580 subjects. Results: Adolescents reported significantly more problem behaviors than their parents. Adolescent girls reported a significantly higher level of distress than boys in most symptom domains. The discrepancies between parent reports and youth self-reports were greater, especially for internalizing symptoms, for girls than for boys. Conclusions: Many adolescents in need of psychiatric assessment do not receive appropriate help because their problems remain unnoticed by adults. Internalizing problems among girls seem especially likely to remain unrecognized by adults. Accepted: 21 October 1999     

The prognostic value of polycomb group protein B‐cell‐specific moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 in stage II colon cancer patients

The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of B‐cell‐specific moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 (BMI1) protein expression in primary tumors of stage II colon cancer patients. BMI1 protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in a retrospective patient cohort consisting of 144 stage II colon cancer patients. BMI1 expression at the invasive front of the primary tumors correlated with mismatch repair status of the tumors. Furthermore, BMI1 expression at the luminal surface correlated with T‐stage, tumor location, and the histological subtypes of the tumors. In a univariate Cox proportional hazard analysis, no statistical significant association between risk of relapse and BMI1 protein expression at the invasive front (HR: 1.12; 95% CI 0.78–1.60; p = 0.53) or at the luminal surface of the tumor (HR: 1.06; 95% CI 0.75–1.48; p = 0.70) was found. Likewise, there was no association between 5‐year overall survival and BMI1 expression at the invasive front (HR: 1.12; 95% CI 0.80–1.56; p = 0.46) or at the luminal surface of the tumor (HR: 1.16; 95% CI 0.86–1.60; p = 0.33). In conclusion, BMI1 expression in primary tumors of stage II colon cancer patients could not predict relapse or overall survival of the patients, thus having a limited prognostic value in stage II colon cancer patients.