COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LORAZEPAM AND TRIMEPRAZINE FOR ORAL PREMEDICATION IN PAEDIATRIC ANAESTHESIA

One hundred and ninety-nine children received either lorazepam0.05 mg kg^–1 or trimeprazine 3 mg kg^–1 as oral premedicationin a double-blind trial. Lorazepam proved more palatable andproduced a cheerful demeanour, but possessed no significantadvantages on overall assessment before surgery Following operation,restlessness with vomiting, and evidence of retrograde amnesiaoccurred more frequently with lorazepam. ^*Present addresses: Department of Anaesthesia, New Cross Hospital,Wol-verhampton, West Midlands. Present addresses: Department of Anaesthesia, Victoria Hospital,Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland.     

A study of doctors' and parents' attitudes to people with mental handicaps

ABSTRACT. The attitudes to people with mental handicaps held by a group of parents of children with mental handicaps and a group of doctors with some involvement in this area were compared using postal questionnaires. Doctors' estimates of how parents would respond were also compared with parents' responses and doctors' own responses. Four Likert-type scales were refined covering attitudes towards the effect on the family, the place in society of people with mental handicaps, their quality of life, and independence and autonomy. Results indicated that parents had more positive attitudes than doctors except with regard to independence and autonomy, to which doctors had the most positive attitudes. Doctors were aware that parents were likely to see the effect on the family in a more positive light, and independence less positively, than themselves. However, they underestimated the degree of positivity of parents about the place of people with mental handicaps in society, and their quality of life, to the extent that they expected parents to be significantly less positive about quality of life than they themselves were, whilst parents in fact proved significantly more positive. The differing perspectives and experiences of parents and doctors are discussed and some suggestions made of ways in which doctors' appreciation of the parental perspective could be developed in an attempt to facilitate sympathetic communication between them.     

FOCAL INTRATUMORAL HETEROGENEITY FOR TELOMERASE ACTIVITY IN HUMAN PROSTATE CANCER

PURPOSE: The value of telomerase activity as a marker in clinical decision-making is closely related to how representative the analysis of a small tumor sample is for the whole tumor. We therefore evaluated the intratumoral distribution pattern of telomerase activity in prostatic carcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 50 prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy, telomerase activity was determined using the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP assay). Comparative analysis of at least two separate cancer areas from a single tumor was performed in 42 cases. RESULTS: Telomerase activation has been demonstrated in 90% of the prostatic carcinomas. Focal intratumoral heterogeneity was found in 38.1% of the tumors with at least two different areas examined. Telomerase positivity of all samples from one given tumor was detected in 50%, telomerase negativity of all samples in 11.9%. A heterogeneous telomerase activity pattern was more frequently detected in tumors with a Gleason score < or = 7 than in those with a Gleason score > 7. Furthermore, there was an increase in the proportion of homogeneously telomerase-positive tumors with increase in severity of the Gleason score. The differences reached statistical significance. Telomerase activity was also detected in non-cancerous prostatic tissue samples. CONCLUSIONS: Telomerase activation is nearly ubiquitous in prostatic carcinomas, although a heterogeneous telomerase activity pattern within tumors might produce a false-negative result in the telomerase activity assay. This limits the value of telomerase activity assays for diagnostic means. There is evidence for a shift from telomerase-negative prostate cancer tissue toward telomerase positivity during the progression process of prostate cancer. The relatively high proportion of telomerase-positive nonmalignant prostatic tissue samples argues against cancer-specificity of telomerase activation.     

Characterization of polymorphisms in the promoter of the human angiotensin II subtype 1 (AT1) receptor gene

In this study eight sequence variants in the functional promoter of the human angiotensin II subtype 1 (AT1 or AGTR1) receptor gene are reported. Six of these variants are in nearly total linkage disequilibrium with each other and occur with a frequency of 15.7%. By haplotype estimation this group of eight sequence variants is characterized by only five haplotypes. There is no linkage disequilibrium between one of these haplotypes and the AT1+1166A/C variant. The finding of polymorphic sites in the functional promoter of the human AT1 locus will be beneficial to the study of the role of the AT1 receptor gene in hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.     

Direct assignment of disulfide bonds by Edman degradation of selected peptide fragments

Disulfide linkages in peptides or proteins were analyzed by automated gas-phase Edman sequencing performed in minimized reducing agents. If cystine linkage was regulated at the same position in two peptides during peptide preparation, the diphenylthiohydantoin derivative of cystine was significantly recovered by Edman reaction. In contrast, when the crosslinked half cystines were present at different positions in the peptides, the derivative could be poorly detected. Upon direct sequence analysis of intact bovine insulin, the PTH derivatives of cystine from both Cys-A7 and Cys-B7 were significantly released after Edman cycle 7 and gave approximately 20% recovery of common PTH amino acids. However, Cys-Al1 linked to Cys-A6 was poorly detectable after Edman cycle 11. For general use of this method, proteins need to be subjected to several sets of proteolytic or chemical cleavages in the hope that at least one of the fragments will have cystine linkage at the same position. This method was applied to several fragments of platelet-derived growth factor B chain and brain-derived neurotrophic factor.