Practical procedures for a radon etched track dosimetry service.

Etched track detectors are widely used for the detection of radon and its decay products. They have many desirable attributes: they are small, cheap, simple, non-toxic and non-hazardous. Etched track detectors provide adequate accuracy for most radiological protection purposes provided stringent quality assurance is maintained. The UK validation scheme provides an important component of QA but continuous monitoring of conditions and results is also needed. If these conditions are observed, these detectors provide an entirely adequate tool for large-scale use in assessing levels of radon in houses. Accurate estimates of long-term average radon levels require a measurement over several months because of the short-term fluctuations in radon concentrations.     

Outpatient management of patients with large multinodular goitres treated with fractionated radioiodine

The efficacy of fractionated out-patient radioiodine therapy in 38 patients with compressive symptoms due to long-standing large multinodular goitres was assessed. The diagnosis was established by clinical assessment in addition to technetium-99m pertechnetate thyroid scan or computed tomography scan of the thyroid and mediastinum. Oral iodine-131 therapy was administered as a 2.22 GBq (60 mCi) cumulative dose over 4 months (555 MBq per month). All patients were monitored with serum thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine (± free tri-iodothyronine) assays before the treatment and after each dose fraction. Clinical and biochemical follow-up was performed on all patients and ranged from 6 to 45 months after therapy. The patients consisted of 35 female and three male patients with a median age of 59 years (range 37–87 years). Prior to treatment 20 patients were biochemically hyperthyroid and 18 were euthyroid. Overall, 71% of patients reported a subjective improvement in compressive symptoms and 29% reported no change. Clinically assessed reduction in goitre size occurred in 92% of patients while there was no change in 8%. At 3 months of follow-up, 31% of patients had become hypothyroid and at 18 months 66% were hypothyroid. Seven hyperthyroid patients (35%) became euthyroid and 13 hyperthyroid patients (65%) became hypothyroid. Three patients who became hypothyroid experienced neck soreness (transient in one patient, persistent in two patients). There were no differences in outcome between patients who were hyperthyroid and those who were euthyroid prior to treatment. Fractionated out-patient radioiodine therapy showed excellent short- and medium-term safety, was very well tolerated and offered a satisfactory alternative treatment to surgery. Received 23 May and in revised form 11 August 1997     

The processing of antigens delivered as DNA vaccines

Summary: The ability of DNA vaccines to provide effective immunological protection against infection and tumors depends on their ability to generate good CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T‐cell responses. Priming of these responses is a property of dendritic cells (DCs), and so the efficacy of DNA‐encoded vaccines is likely to depend on the way in which the antigens they encode are processed by DCs. This processing could either be via the synthesis of the vaccine‐encoded antigen by the DCs themselves or via its uptake by DCs following its synthesis in bystander cells that are unable to prime T cells. These different sources of antigen are likely to engage different antigen‐processing pathways, which are the subject of this review. Understanding how to access different processing pathways in DCs may ultimately aid the rational development of plasmid‐based vaccines to pathogens and to cancer.     

Effect of inhaled frusemide on responses of airways to bradykinin and adenosine 5'-monophosphate in asthma.

BACKGROUND--Inhaled frusemide exerts a protective effect against bronchoconstriction induced by several indirect stimuli in asthma. This effect could be caused by interference with neural pathways. The effect of inhaled frusemide on bronchoconstriction induced by inhaled bradykinin, which is thought to cause bronchoconstriction via neural mechanisms, was studied and compared with the effects of adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) which probably produces its airway effects by augmenting mast cell mediator release and interfering with neural pathways. METHODS--Patients first underwent AMP and bradykinin challenges. They were then studied in a randomised, placebo controlled, double blind fashion. Ten atopic asthmatic subjects, studied on four days, were pretreated with inhaled frusemide (40 mg) or placebo for 10 minutes, five minutes before challenge with increasing concentrations of nebulised AMP or bradykinin. RESULTS--On the open visit days the provocative concentrations required to reduce forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) by 20% from baseline (PC20) for AMP and bradykinin were 16.23 (1.42-67.16) and 2.75 (0.81-6.6) mg/ml. There was a significant correlation between baseline AMP and bradykinin PC20 values. For AMP the geometric mean PC20 values following pretreatment with inhaled frusemide and matched placebo were 80.97 (9.97- > 400.0) and 14.86 (2.6-104.6) mg/ml respectively (95% CI 0.49 to 0.98). For bradykinin the geometric mean PC20 values following pretreatment with inhaled frusemide and matched placebo were 13.22 (2.53- > 16.0) and 2.52 (0.45-5.61) mg/ml respectively (95% CI 0.43 to 1.01). Frusemide afforded 5.45 and 5.24 fold protection against AMP and bradykinin-induced bronchoconstriction respectively. Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between protection afforded to the airways against AMP and bradykinin. CONCLUSIONS--These data suggest that inhaled frusemide affords protection against bradykinin-induced bronchoconstriction which is comparable to that against AMP, supporting a common mechanism of action for frusemide.     

Relative carriage rates of nuclear dehydrogenating clostridia in two populations of different colorectal cancer risk

Carriage of nuclear dehydrogenating clostridia has been associated with colon cancer and implicated in its aetiology. This study has compared the carriage of these organisms in a British population at high risk for the development of colon cancer with a low risk Nigerian population. Clostridia were found in all of the stools from both populations. Nuclear dehydrogenating clostridia were only found in the stools of the British subjects (32%). These results support the suggestion that the carriage rate of nuclear dehydrogenating clostridia in a population is related to the risk of colon cancer.