Food group intake patterns and associated nutrient profiles of the US population

We developed a method for evaluating food group intake patterns using dietary recall data (n = 11,529) from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. We used this method to examine the relationship of these food group intake patterns to nutrient intake and to selected biochemical indexes of nutritional status. We evaluated each 24-hour dietary intake recall for the presence or omission of five broad food groups--dairy, meat, grain, fruit, and vegetable. The five most prevalent patterns and the proportion of the population reporting them was as follows: all food groups, 33.6%; no fruit, 23.9%; no dairy and fruit, 9.0%; no dairy, 8.0%; and no fruit and vegetable, 5.6%. In the most prevalent pattern, all food groups were consumed; this was the only pattern that provided mean amounts of all of the key vitamins and minerals at levels greater than or equal to the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs). This pattern also was reported by the lowest proportion of individuals consuming less than 100% RDA of the key nutrients. Patterns in which both fruit and vegetables were consumed were associated with highest levels of serum vitamin C. The consistency of these results indicates that screening diets for food group consumption can quickly provide meaningful information about their quality.     

Idiopathic neonatal pleural effusion

We present two cases of neonatal pleural effusion, a relatively rare condition, most commonly due to chylothorax. One had bilateral hypoplastic lungs and the other suffered birth asphyxia. Both died before any treatment could be initiated.     

Marrow fibrosis associated with a Philadelphia chromosome.

Three patients had marked marrow fibrosis and an apparent Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome. Hematologic, cytogenetic, and molecular studies demonstrated the heterogeneity of such cases, including the first example of clinically typical myelofibrosis (MF) associated with a bcr gene rearrangement characteristic of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).     

Effects of controllable vs. uncontrollable stress on circadian temperature rhythms

The effects of sustained stress on body temperature were investigated in rats implanted with mini-transmitters that permitted remote measurement of body temperature. Temperature was first monitored during control conditions. Following the control period, rats were either shaped to avoid/escape signalled around-the-clock intermittent footshock (controllable stress) or yoked to the controlling rats such that the controlling rat and the yoked rat received shock of the same duration, but only the controlling rat could terminate shock by pulling a ceiling chain. Under control conditions, rats demonstrated regular rhythms in body temperature which averaged 1 degree higher during the 12-h dark cycle than the light cycle. Stress disrupted the rhythm and markedly decreased the night-day difference in temperature, especially in the yoked rats in which almost no difference between light and dark cycle temperature was seen. The disruption was most marked for the first days of stress. A regular temperature rhythm was reestablished following about 5 days of stress although the stress condition continued. Leverpressing for food was also affected by the stress conditions with both stress groups leverpressing less than controls and the uncontrollable stress group pressing less than the controllable stress group. These data offer additional evidence of the increased pathophysiological effects of uncontrollable as compared to controllable stress.     

True epiphrenic diverticulum of esophagus secondary to tubercular adenitis.

Ephiphrenic esophageal diverticulum is rare and usually is a pulsion-type pseudodiverticulum that occurs in association with motility disorders of the esophagus. We report a 35-year-old man with tubercular lymphadenitis causing true traction type of epiphrenic diverticulum. Esophageal diverticulectomy and esophagomyotomy was done; he is doing well on antitubercular drugs.     

Sluggish glucose tolerance in tuberculosis patients.

OBJECTIVE: To examine glucose tolerance in sputum-positive non-treated pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients as part of a general metabolic profile. Subjects. Sixty-three sputum-positive non-treated patients (male and female) attending the pulmonary clinic at Mthatha General Hospital in the Eastern Cape and 89 apparently healthy sex and age-matched volunteers. METHODS: Sixty-three untreated TB patients who came to the Mthatha General Hospital's pulmonary clinic with classic symptoms of TB, confirmed by sputum analysis, were recruited for the study. Eighty-nine apparently healthy sex and age-matched volunteers served as the control group. Anthropometric measurements were taken using an electronic scale. Standard oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) were performed in both groups in the morning after an overnight fast. Anticoagulant-treated blood was analysed for glucose and insulin using Peridochrome Glucose (Boehringer Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany) and radioimmunoassay (RIA) (Diagnostic Products Corporation, Los Angeles, USA) respectively. RESULTS: There was sluggish response to glucose and insulin in the TB patient group compared with the control group. Glucose and insulin levels were significantly higher in patients at 0, 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes. Analysis of variance gave the following p-values, viz. p = 0.0000, 0.0004, 0.0000, 0.0000 and 0.0000 for glucose, and p = 0.0317, 0.0071, 0.0000, 0.0005 and 0.0000 for insulin respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest an altered glucose/insulin metabolism in TB patients. This might play an important role in the clinical course of the disease.     

Digital image acquisition using a consumer-type digital camera in the anatomic pathology setting

Imaging is central to anatomic pathology. The captured images are used for documentation, archiving, teaching, and publication. The advent of low-cost, consumer-type, high-end digital cameras has provided a convenient, easy-to-use alternative for routine image acquisition. The various applications for digital image acquisition in anatomic pathology include, among others, digitizing conventional photographs, digital gross photography and digital macrophotography, digitizing radiographic images, and digital photomicrography. This article reviews digital image acquisition in the anatomic pathology setting using a consumer-type digital camera. The camera type chosen as an example for the discussion was selected for its popularity and wide use among pathologists and for its potential to function as a sole image input device in all applications combined. Techniques and accessories to further increase the functionality of the camera and help overcome some of the commonly encountered problems in some applications are described.     

Seminoma in a postmenopausal woman with a Y;15 translocation in peripheral blood lymphocytes and a t(Y;15)/45,X Turner mosaic pattern in skin fibroblasts.

We report an unusual case of a 55 year old Japanese woman with a seminoma but relatively normal menses. The patient was a phenotypic female with late onset menarche (18 years of age), who was amenorrhoeic for the first year, followed by menses of one to three days' slight flow with dysmenorrhoea, but an otherwise normal menstrual history. A typical seminoma was removed from the left adnexal region and an immature testis was identified separately as an associated right adnexal mass. Repeated karyotypic studies on peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures showed only 46,X,-Y,t(Y;15)(q12;p13). Cytogenetic examination of the patient's younger brother, who had fathered three healthy children, showed an identical karyotype. Mosaicism of 46,X,-Y,t(Y;15)(q12;p13)/45,X cell lines was found in skin samples from the patient's elbow and genital regions, although there were no clinical stigmata of Turner syndrome. An androgen receptor binding assay of cultured genital skin fibroblasts was negative. Molecular analysis using Southern blot hybridisation, PCR, and direct DNA sequencing showed that neither the patient nor her brother had a detectable deletion or other abnormalities of Y chromosome sequences, including the SRY (sex determining region of the Y chromosome) gene sequence. These findings suggest that Turner mosaicism of the 45,X cell line may have contributed to this atypical presentation in an XY female, although we cannot exclude abnormalities of other genes related to sex differentiation.     

Clonal analysis of solitary follicular nodules in the thyroid.

Accumulated data using functional, morphologic, and histochemical analysis suggests that follicular proliferations in the thyroid include polyclonal and monoclonal patterns with encapsulated follicular adenomas most frequently monoclonal, and other nodules generally polyclonal. However, examples of polyclonal carcinomas or adenomas raise the possibility that histologically similar lesions may arise through different pathogenetic mechanisms. The authors have performed a clonal analysis of histologically benign and malignant thyroid nodules in seven women using HPRT (hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase) and PGK (phosphoglycerate kinase) restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) on the X chromosome. These RFLPs used in concert with methylation-sensitive restriction endonucleases HpaII and HhaI permit distinction of active and inactive X chromosomes. DNA from a multinodular goiter showed equal sensitivity of both X chromosome RFLP alleles to a methylation-sensitive restriction endonuclease, consistent with a polyclonal origin. In contrast, three solitary follicular nodules and three carcinomas displayed predominant sensitivity of a single RFLP allele, consistent with a monoclonal origin. Although further detailed studies will be necessary to understand polyclonal origins reported for some adenomas, our data from a limited number of samples supports a predominantly monoclonal origin, and possible neoplastic pathogenesis, for many solitary adenomatous nodules in the thyroid.