Über die Bedeutung der Hauterscheinungen beim akuten Gelenkrheumatismus

Zusammenfassung Die Auffassung des akuten Gelenksrheumatismus als allergische Krankheit bedingt auch die Deutung der diese Erkrankung begleitenden Hauterscheinungen als allergische Phänomene. Das Erythema annulare und die Urticaria rheumatica werden im Sinne toxisch-allergischer Effloreszenzen erklärt, und der Rheumatismus nodosus diesen beiden Hautveränderungen als periphere hyperergische Entzündung bei einer bestimmten Reaktionslage des sensibilisierten Organismus symptomatologisch und prognostisch nahegestellt. An Hand mehrerer Fälle werden Beobachtungen gebracht, daß die erwähnten peripheren Erscheinungen klinisch ähnliches Geschehen begleiten und somit ihre engere innere Verwandtschaft als wahrscheinlich angenommen. Erythema annulare, Urticaria rheumatica und Rheumatismus nodosus begleiten eine Generalisation der rheumatischen Infektion und treten meist dann auf, wenn die Herzklappen, das Nervensystem oder die serösen Häute ergriffen werden. Alle drei Phänomene haben auch gemeinsame Beziehungen zu Allergieschwankungen im Organismus. In diesem Sinne werden die erwähnten Erscheinungen als Symptome eines allergischen Sekundärstadiums der akuten Polyarthritis aufgefaßt (ähnlich den sekundären Hauteffloreszenzen bei der Tuberkulose) und ihnen als Indikatoren der Generalisation der rheumatischen Noxe, besondere prognostische Bedeutung zugemessen.     

Influence of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms

BACKGROUND: Our aims in the present study were to estimate the influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life, and to determine which of these two variables has the most predictive power with respect to quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. METHODS: Chronic prostatitis-like symptoms were measured by the National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index. Of the 28,841 men aged 20 years who lived in the study community, 18,495 men (a response rate 64.1%) agreed to participate in the study. A total of 1057 men who complained of symptoms indicative of chronic prostatitis were included in the study. The influences of pain and urinary symptoms on quality of life were determined using logistic regression analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to estimate the predictive ability of each of these variables with respect to quality of life. RESULTS: Results from multivariate analysis showed that both pain and urinary symptoms were associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life, although pain contributed more to a reduced quality of life than urinary symptoms. Relative to men who experienced mild pain, men who experienced moderate pain had a 3.9-fold risk of poor quality of life (odds ratio [OR], 3.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.86-5.23; P < 0.001) and those who experienced severe pain had a 15.7-fold risk of reduced quality of life (OR, 15.68; 95% CI, 6.59-37.35; P < 0.001). Moderate urinary symptoms were associated with a 1.4-fold risk of bother (OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.01-1.99; P < 0.001) and severe urinary symptoms were associated with 2.4-fold risk (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.37-4.12; P < 0.001), relative to mild urinary symptoms. Comparison of the effects of pain and urinary symptoms showed that pain severity had the most predictive power for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact. The areas under the ROC curves for bother, quality of life, and quality-of-life impact were 71.3%, 69.3% and 72.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Urinary symptoms and pain might be associated with an increased likelihood of impaired quality of life in young men with chronic prostatitis-like symptoms. In addition, our findings suggest that pain severity is the most influential variable for determining quality of life in this population.     

Protein conformation in rat tooth enamel

Orientated 0.47 nm reflections in X-ray diffraction patterns of developing rat tooth enamel were confirmed using a wide range of specimen preparations and experimental conditions. This indicates that some of the organic matrix proteins adopt a beta-sheet conformation.