A 4‐year follow‐up case of extrusive luxation in a patient with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a condition caused by brain damage before, during, or shortly after birth. Communication can be a challenge when treating patients with CP. Some patients can communicate verbally, while others use augmentative alternative communication tools or have individualized means of communication. Therefore, professional dental treatment in individuals with CP is challenging, especially if the patient is affected by dental trauma and requires emergency treatment. This report shows how individualized communication skills assessment allowed us to successfully manage a 9‐year‐old patient with CP, who suffered extrusive luxation of the permanent lower incisor. In the present case, the teeth were repositioned briefly after the trauma had occurred and then stabilized with a flexible splint according to international guidelines. The teeth remained vital and periodontal repair was observed during the 4‐year follow‐up.     

伴有LADD综合征的角膜缘干细胞缺乏

泪管-耳-牙-指（趾）（LADD）综合征是一种具有多种表现的常染色体显性遗传疾病。最初在1967年由Levy报道。1例双侧泪液系统缺失、杯状耳、干嘴，以及牙、手臂和指（趾）异常的单发病例。之后一些新发现的临床表现，如肾脏异常、唾液腺缺乏、先天性髋脱位、先天性裂孔疝和横膈疝、感觉性耳聋和传导性耳聋、牙发育不全、四肢异常、口腔干燥和眼干都被报道与此综合征有关。     

Monotherapy with enoxaparin for the prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism.

This study aimed to determine whether a weight-adjusted dose of subcutaneous enoxaparin is as effective and safe as oral acenocoumarol for the secondary prophylaxis of pulmonary embolism. Three hundred and eighty consecutive noncancer outpatients hospitalized with an episode of symptomatic pulmonary embolism selected treatment with acenocoumarol or enoxaparin at a dose of 1 mg/kg once daily after being informed of the type of administration and expected frequency of laboratory monitoring for both medicinal products. Endpoints were symptomatic recurrent thromboembolic events evaluated by standard objective testing, and a composite endpoint of recurrent venous thromboembolism, major bleeding, and death from any cause. One hundred and ninety-nine patients (52%) chose acenocoumarol therapy and 181 chose enoxaparin monotherapy. Four patients in the enoxaparin group (2.2%) and six patients in the acenocoumarol group (3%) had an objective thromboembolic recurrence (hazard ratio, 1.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.38-4.79; P = 0.64). Nine patients in the enoxaparin group (5.0%) had a hemorrhagic complication compared with 11 in the acenocoumarol group (5.5%) (P = 0.81). The hospital length of stay was shorter with enoxaparin compared with acenocoumarol (11 versus 16 days, P = 0.0001). Enoxaparin is as effective and safe as acenocoumarol in the secondary prevention of recurrent thromboembolic disease and is associated with shorter hospitalization.     

Transmission of Syphilis by Solid Organ Transplantation

Two organ recipients developed serologic evidence of syphilis infection after renal transplantation from a common deceased donor with a history of treated syphilis. Testing of donor serum for syphilis, which occurred after transplantation, gave results interpreted as consistent with past infection. However, subsequent serologic results in the recipients suggested transmission of infection at transplantation due to active infection of the donor. This may be explained by recent donor re-infection in view of the current syphilis epidemic in the United Kingdom. An initial error in the treatment of recipients further served to highlight unfamiliarity in managing this resurgent infection in the context of organ transplantation.     

Antinuclear antibodies in scleroderma,mixed connective tissue disease and “primary” Raynaud's phenomenon

Summary The diversity of antibodies in patients with scleroderma, mixed connective tissue disease or primary Raynaud's phenomenon could be used as a laboratory aid in the clinical diagnosis. In serum samples of 75 patients we screened for antinuclear antibodies (HEp 2 cells), anti DNA, soluble nucleoprotein and extractable nuclear antigens (Sm, rRNP, Ul-nRNP, SSA/Ro, SSB/La and Scl-70). Distinctive antinuclear antibodies pattern was identified in each group of patients. This immunologic profile is valuable for clinical diagnosis and the preferential association of certain autoantibodies with some diseases and not with others, suggest an antigen-driven stimulus for its production.     

Meningitis due to mixed infection with penicillin-resistant and penicillin-susceptible strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the major cause of bacterial meningitis. We report a case of meningitis due to a mixed infection with two distinct strains of S. pneumoniae: one penicillin-resistant strain of serotype 9V and one penicillin-susceptible strain of serotype 7. The two strains exhibited different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles.     

Comparing bacterial genomes through conservation profiles

We constructed two-dimensional representations of profiles of gene conservation across different genomes using the genome of Escherichia coli as a model. These profiles permit both the visualization at the genome level of different traits in the organism studied and, at the same time, reveal features related to the genomes analyzed (such as defective genomes or genomes that lack a particular system). Conserved genes are not uniformly distributed along the E. coli genome but tend to cluster together. The study of gene distribution patterns across genomes is important for the understanding of how sets of genes seem to be dependent on each other, probably having some functional link. This provides additional evidence that can be used for the elucidation of the function of unannotated genes. Clustering these patterns produces families of genes which can be arranged in a hierarchy of closeness. In this way, functions can be defined at different levels of generality depending on the level of the hierarchy that is studied. The combined study of conservation and phenotypic traits opens up the possibility of defining phenotype/genotype associations, and ultimately inferring the gene or genes responsible for a particular trait.     

Distribution of glycoconjugates during cochlea development in mice: light microscopic lectin study

During development, different epithelial cells in the mouse cochlea express different cell surface glycoconjugates, which may reflect membrane specialization. Some of the lectins tested in this study (SBA, succ-WGA, and PSA) labeled the sensory cells of the cochlea around birth. Other lectins (WGA, Con A, RCA-II, and PHA-E) labeled surfaces of the sensory cells, particularly the stereocilia, from early stages of development (gestation day (GD) 16) through 21 days after birth. These may be adhesion molecules needed to attach the newly forming tectorial membrane (TM) to the stereocilia. Lectin staining of the developing TM revealed that the substructures of the TM are biochemically distinct. Lectin staining also showed the temporal sequence of the expression of cytoplasmic glycoconjugates of the cochlear epithelium during development. Biochemical changes during development are probably the result of different cells being involved in the production of glycoconjugates, and may have functional significance, specifically with regard to the expression of adhesion and/or signaling molecules.     

The gene DIS2S1 is essential in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and is involved in glycogen phosphorylase activation

Summary S. cerevisiae gene DIS2S1, which codes for a protein very similar to the catalytic subunit of mammalian protein phosphatase 1, was disrupted in vitro. Diploid yeast cells were transformed and sporulated. Tetrad analysis demonstrated that disruption of DIS2S1 is lethal for the cell. Glycogen phosphorylase a and glycogen synthase activity ratio were measured in diploids carrying a disrupted allele of the gene. Phosphorylase was dramatically activated in mutant cells but, under the same conditions, glycogen synthase activity was essentially identical in both mutant and wild-type cells.