Complete Nucleotide Sequence Analysis of a Western Pacific Dengue-1 Virus Strain

We have determined the complete nucleotide sequence and the deduced amino acid polypeptide sequence of the genome of a dengue-1 (DEN-1) virus strain isolated from a patient on Nauru in the Western Pacific in 1974 (West Pac 74). The complete genome is 10,735 nucleotides in length and contains a single long open reading frame of 10,176 nucleotides encoding a polyprotein of 3392 amino acids. When compared to DEN-1 Singapore S275/90, the nucleotide and amino acid sequence homology are 94% and 97.8%, respectively. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Eosinophilic Granuloma of the temporal bone

Primary Eosinophilic Granuloma of the temporal bone is a rare condition. A case is reported with review of relevant literature.     

Interphase nucleolar organizer region distribution in the tissues of oral leukoplakia, oral submucous fibrosis and oral cancer

The AgNOR technique, was applied to oral tissue sections of 185 oral cancer, 42 oral leukoplakia, 37 oral submucous fibrosis and 10 normal subjects to investigate whether any correlation held good in these different tissues. Compared to the AgNOR counts in normal oral epithelium, there was a gradation in increase in the mean AgNOR counts from oral leukoplakia to oral submucous fibrosis to oral carcinoma (P<0.01). This suggests that AgNOR count parallels with the degree of neoplastic transformation of oral epithelium. Three oral submucous fibrosis patients who showed very high AgNOR counts as that of oral cancer patients, later developed oral carcinoma. Among the oral cancer tissues, the moderately and poorly differentiated subtypes showed higher AgNOR counts and scattered distribution pattern than the well differentiated subtype which showed a clustered distribution pattern. These results suggest that AgNOR technique can be utilised as a diagnostic and prognostic indicator in premalignant and malignant oral tissues.     

Partial cardiomyectomy--an animal model of gastro-oesophageal reflux

Various procedures have been adopted to provide experimental models of gastro-oesophageal reflux. Although some procedures have produced better results than others, previous literature does not assert that experimental gastro-oesophageal reflux can be produced reliably in all animals. This study attempts to compare two procedures to produce a working model of gastro-oesophageal reflux in the rabbit: (i) cardiomyotomy and (ii) cardiomyectomy. The animals underwent intraoesophageal pH monitoring one week before and one week following surgery. The mean changes in % reflux time from preoperative to one week postoperative were compared. The cardiomyotomy group did not demonstrate significant gastro-oesophageal reflux (p > 0.2, p < 0.5), the mean change in % reflux time was 10.5 +/- 14.11%, whereas the cardiomyectomy group did demonstrate significant reflux (p < 0.001) with a mean change in % reflux time of 22.35 +/- 3.05%. A further study investigated the cardiomyectomy procedure in ten rabbits. Animals underwent preoperative, one-week and four-week postoperative intraoesophageal manometry and pH studies. The mean change in values from preoperative to four weeks postoperative were compared. There was a significant increase in mean % reflux time from a preoperative value of 3.05 +/- 2.29% to 42.08 +/- 12.05% at four weeks after surgery (p < 0.001). There was also a significant decrease in mean basal LOS pressure from a preoperative value of 15.00 +/- 5.49 mmHg to 4.45 +/- 1.90 mmHg four weeks following surgery (p < 0.001). This study showed that cardiomyectomy alone produces effective gastro-oesophageal reflux in the rabbit, and thus provides an experimental model to test the effectiveness of antireflux procedures.