Preliminary Findings from a Brief,Peer-Led Safer Sex Intervention for College Students Living in Residence Halls

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a single-session peer-led safer sex intervention, based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills theoretical model, for college students residing in campus residence halls. Participants (N = 108) were assigned to either an hour long control or 5-module intervention session. Compared to the control condition, the intervention increased participants’ information and women’s subjective norms about preventative behavior. Both the control and intervention sessions increased intentions to perform preventative behaviors (e.g., keep condoms available). These preliminary results suggest that this intervention is promising for increasing constructs associated with safer sexual behavior and could easily be implemented by residence hall staff.     

A ‘Weight‐Listing’ Paradox for Candidates of Renal Transplantation?

Research suggests that end-stage renal disease patients with elevated body mass index (BMI) have superior outcomes on dialysis. In contrast, low and high BMI patients represent the highest risk cohorts for kidney transplant recipients. The important question remains concerning how to manage transplant candidates given the potentially incommensurate impact of BMI by treatment modality. We conducted a retrospective analysis of waitlisted and transplanted patients in the United States from 1990 to 2003. We constructed Cox models to evaluate the effect of BMI on mortality of waitlisted candidates and identified risk factors for rapid weight change. We then assessed the impact of weight change during waitlisting on transplant outcomes. Decline in BMI on the waiting list was not protective for posttransplant mortality or graft loss across BMI strata. Substantial weight loss pretransplantation was associated with rapid gain posttransplantation. The highest risk for death was among listed patients with low BMI (13-20 kg/m(2), adjusted hazard ratio = 1.47, p < 0.01). Approximately one-third of candidates had a change in BMI category prior to transplantation. While observed declines in BMI may be volitional or markers of disease processes, there is no evidence that candidates have improved transplant outcomes attributable to weight loss. Prospective trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy of weight loss protocols for candidates of kidney transplantation.     

Alveolar hydatid disease of the liver: Brief review and spectrum of adjacent organ invasion

The purpose of this study is to show the spectrum of adjacent organ invasion and to make a brief review of hepatic alveolar hydatid disease (AHD), using CT and MR imaging. We retrospectively reviewed CT and MR images of three patients with various adjacent organ invasions surgically and histologically proven to be AHD. Local invasion to right kidney and adrenal, right hemidiaphragm and lung were detected in one patient, right adrenal in another patient and gall bladder, duodenum, gastric wall and pancreas invasion in the other. AHD may rarely extend to the gall bladder, stomach, duodenum, pancreas, right adrenal and kidney, diaphragm, pleura and lung. The extension of the disease outside the liver is usually encountered in patients with large, peripherally located masses in the advanced stage of the disease.     

Partial tolerance in rat renal allograft recipients following multiple blood transfusions and concomitant cyclosporine

Multiple prior administrations of donor-strain blood while under limited cyclosporine cover, consistently induce extensive rat renal allograft survival and transplantation tolerance. Yet it was hypothesized that some chronic rejection mechanisms were nevertheless operative since consistent but nonprogressive minor renal dysfunction was observed long-term. A histopathologic study on these putative tolerant rats was undertaken to test this hypothesis. Twenty long-term LEW recipients of BN renal allografts receiving the blood-CsA regimen were examined histopathologically at day 100 post-transplant. Sixteen control LEW recipients receiving only a BN renal allograft were studied acutely at day 7 posttransplant. The control recipients demonstrated a range of lesions consistent with previous studies on acute renal allograft rejection in the rat. However, tolerant recipients demonstrated mild-to-moderate lesions consistent with chronic mechanisms of rejection including the following: moderate focal interstitial mononuclear inflammatory cellular infiltration, with periglomerular and perivascular accumulation; occasional arteriolar luminal obliteration and glomerular atrophy; focal areas of moderate interstitial fibrosis; mild interstitial hemorrhage; mild-to-moderate tubular atrophy; and focal tubular necrosis. Previously our laboratory has documented that tissue-specific renal basement membrane antigens may be responsible for inciting this pattern of focal chronic interstitial inflammation. However, from the present histopathologic studies, it would appear likely that chronic rejection mechanisms in these recipients, which were defined as tolerant by immunologic criteria, involve both tissue-specific and MHC determinants. Therefore, induction of transplantation tolerance in these indefinite survivors is partial or incomplete.     

The role of home-made ice cream as a vehicle of Salmonella enteritidis phage type 4 infection from fresh shell eggs.

A family outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis PT4 infection is described in which home-made ice cream was identified as the vehicle of infection. The ice cream contained approximately 10(5) S. enteritidis PT4 organisms per gm and was probably contaminated by an infected shell egg containing between 10(5)-10(8) organisms. The continued relevance of the Chief Medical Officer''s warning on the use of raw shell eggs is highlighted. Home-made ice cream using the same recipe as ice cream that had been incriminated as the cause of the family outbreak of S. enteritidis PT4 infection was used to study the growth of the organism that might have occurred in the 3-4 h it took to prepare the product. When the inoculum was in the stationary phase, as it would be from shell or other cross contamination, there was a lag phase of 3 h before growth occurred at room temperature. Even when actively multiplying organisms were introduced, as may be found in an infected egg, there was less than 3 log(10) increase in the salmonella count in 4 h at room temperature. It was, therefore, given the high S. enteritidis count, unlikely that the ice cream was cross-contaminated. By contrast, raspberry sorbet at pH 3.73 proved to be lethal to a large inoculum of S. enteritidis and may be a relatively safe raw egg containing product.     

Deprivation of form vision suppresses diurnal cycling of retinal levels of leu-enkephalin

Deprivation of form vision by the fitting of translucent occluders suppressed the diurnal cycling of enkephalinergic amacrine cells (the ENSLI amacrine cells), in the chicken. Daily periods of normal vision or enforcing temporal contrast using strobe lighting appeared to restore normal functioning of the ENSLI cells. These results suggest that the ENSLI cells are involved in retinal circuits that assess the quality of the visual image and control eye growth.